Sunday, July 16, 2006

Teacher's Pet

Scene I

I just had to write about this one… While remembering the fun times I had with my family, I was also reminded of my graduation days. yeah.. Those were the days. When my friend circle was more or less inactive. All we had was the six of us. We ate together, laughed together, and got into trouble together. There was just no looking back. All of us were unlucky… if anything went wrong; we didn’t have to wonder whose fault it was. We would just blame it on ourselves. We were like a walking talking lean mean bad luck machine! Watch out…

Disaster was like a way of life. There was this once when the six of us were sitting in a cafĂ© right outside the college premises. After the lunch break was over, we went back to the college to attend the next hour “Business Law”. What we see is a classroom echoing of only our shrill voices and not a soul in sight.

“Oh my god! Where’s our batch???”

“Do you think they decided to bunk?”


Silence and inertia…


“Ok so what’s plan B?”


“Okaaaaay…… looks like we don’t even have plan A…”


“Silence woman! I am trying to think of something!”

Here’s the wise one speaking “I think this is an amazing opportunity for us to prove ourselves. Let’s show them who’s the boss.. see.. Its like this.. If we are the only ones attending this class, the professor will think that we are a sincere bunch and then you can say goodbye to all the ‘first and last warning GET OUT OF MY CLASS’, ‘go to the principals office – all six of you!’.. I think we’d better start getting used to the idea of being teachers pet.. hehehe”

Being teachers pet was an altogether an alien feeling for us. Anyway. So we made our way into the newly found comfort of knowing that everything is going to be just superb! I mean who could blame us.. It was a perfect plan.

The professor walks in…

“Where’s your batch?”


“Ma’am they are bunking this hour”


“and what are you girls doing here??”


Silence and inertia…

“Go out! Do something.. Get a life! Do you want me to sit here for an hour and look at your faces! I could have easily gotten a free hour but for the six of you!”

That was the most embarrassing day of my life. It was even more embarrassing than the time when I was trying to prove to my other friends that I can handle a drink or two. But then after 2 drinks, I got allergic to god knows what and then there was a lot of scratching and vomiting and other stuff related to allergies.. but that’s another story.

Scene II

The next week, we thought that now was the time to prove our professor wrong. We were not a bunch of losers with no personal life. We were just a bunch of losers way too involved in trying not to get into any sort of trouble. All but in vain.

“Do you think she’ll be mad?”


“Remember what she said last time?”


“ya ok.. So by not attending this hour, we become cool?”


“Absolutely”


“Count me in”


“Me too”


“Me three” and so on…


So there we were, giggling away to glory at our accomplishment. We were so proud that day!
The day was over.
Next morning, all of us meet up at the usual time and walk towards the classroom. We stopped at the notice board and all of our faces went white! It was almost like all six of us choking on chewing gums at the same time and nobody to save us. The notice read:

“Students who did not attend the Business Law class yesterday, are required to meet the Principal. Letters to their parents are awaiting dispatch.

Signed,
Sr. XYZ
Administrator”


Note for the other five: if you are reading this, don’t forget that you love me and if you kill me you will never find a true friend like me. With luv -Tan

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Homesick

Here I am. Feeling homesick again. All thanks to the new stupid rule that makes it compulsory for all students to attend the first week of the new session. Man.. And what keeps me from smashing the brains behind this stupendous RULE?! Thinking about the good times I had with my family.. Specially with my Dad.. He’s the best. I still remember the one and only shopping spree I had been to with my Dad... Oh Boy… That was one LONG day. For him as well as for me. Here are a few extracts from the limited conversation that we had that day.

So we went.. to 'Commercial Street'.. that’s in Bangalore if you’re wondering.. One of my favorite places for shopping :)

First Shop
“Oh you don’t like anything here? Its ok.. Let’s go to that one…”

Second shop
“Hmmm.. it looks just like the last top we saw..”

“No??? Ok maybe some other shop…”

Third shop
“Cummon.. they are all the same! Buy something!!”

More shops…

“No I am not stepping in.. anyway you aren’t going to buy anything.. So I’ll just wait here out side in the hot sun...”


“That’s too short..”


“What??!! no sleeves?? And we pay 700 bucks for it??!”


“I am hungry…”


“That’s enough.. Let’s go home…”


“What do you mean it doesn’t fit? Of course it does.. Let’s buy this and go home…”


“Tanviiiiiiii!!”


“%#&**#%&!!”


“I am going to wait in the car now.. when you are done, wake me up…”


And then I return after 2 hours or so… I find a father who is on the verge of a nuclear explosion. Yet in midst of confrontation, he manages to squeeze in some amount of parental interest..

“So what did you buy?”

Me “Ohh.. nothing.. they were all the same.. Maybe we should come back next week to check out if there’s new stock…..”

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Child Rights and You

It was an eventful day. I never knew that you could get lost even if you took a direct bus to your destination. Initially there was a lot of heat and then there was rain, but mostly it rained.. cats and dogs... Then my friend also forgot to carry the address to our destination along. In short, we were lost.. and late for the volunteer orientation meeting.

I visited the CRY office today over here in Kolkata. Yes, its an NGO. and in case you haven't heard about it, you could read more about what they do and how, on their website. CRY is the only NGO, where it is very simple to become a volunteer. Even simpler than creating a mail ID. Unlike other big NGO's where half the time people don't even answer calls, and even if they do, they never revert. So you keep wondering whether you're not good enough for volunteering or what?!

Earlier CRY was 'Child relief and you', but recently they've changed it to 'Child rights and You'. The reason being that whenever relief work was undertaken, the benefit was not long lasting. The only way to achieve this was to adopt the 'Child Rights approach', which involves looking into the underlying root causes of deprivation.

During the presentation, we were given an insight into a 12 year old girl's life. Her name was Ursula. Her father used to work for one of the West bengal tea garden owners. And due to illegal lockouts, her father lost his job and the family their daily source of income. Poverty led to illness. Her entire family had to be admitted to a far away hospital. Ursula's uncle came down from Mumbai, helped her family to get better and offered to take Ursula and her sister along with him back to Mumbai.. Ursula dreamt of meeting Shahrukh and Karishma that night... Her parents never heard from the uncle or the girls ever again.. They were trafficked...

CRY is an enabling organisation as opposed to an implementing one. For example, they do not encourage volunteers going to orphanages on weekends and spend some time playing with the deprived children. Of course singing and dancing does take their mind of the terrible environment they are living in for an hour or two, but what after that?? Instead, CRY encourages volunteers to help with improvement of the surroundings like the quality of meals, cleanliness, hygiene etc.

Now I know that CRY is not 'Charity'. Because charity is a one time effort. This is an on going process. And it'll never stop till the time all the children of India have to right to life, health, nutrition, education, leisure, expression, religion, thought and protection from abuse, exploitation and neglect.


"Stand up for what is right..."

Saturday, July 01, 2006

A song for YOU

Fate
Be gentle
Coz when you’re gentle, you are easy to handle
And fears depart.


Truth
Be good to my child
As she believes in you.

Soul
Be pious
Coz when you are pious, I appear to be less sinful


Lies
Be around
Coz you never know when I might need escape


Songs
Be joyful
Coz when you are joyful, even if you are a handful
You are happiness


Love
Be loved
Coz when you are loved, you are the heaven above
And hearts beat.