merging...

Was struck by the impact of what we can do and what we simply don’t…its impact not only on others but on ourselves… Our inability to stand up for what we believe is right and to voice our protest against the wrong at the right time… it can leave an empty and lost space within for much longer than we will ever realize…

the dark...

feeling pink...

assessment time...

Assessment time for all our children and we’ve all been in the centres…and there are a lot of wonderful stories I’ve been a part of or heard!!

L for Lobster
E for Explosive
Really what ever happened to the simpler days when E was for Elephant!

Counting 6+4 on fingers and one big toe!!
It was a simply adorable sight to see this girl fit 4 on one hand and then struggle with fitting 6 on the other… she had one little big toe point up so she could remember to count it!!

Math answers through meditation
So this tiny little boy tries to answer 9+3 but uses no fingers or toes… he closes his eyes real tight… and just when M thought he may not know, he quips up, opens eyes wide and says 12! And M thinks, hmm maybe meditation can help…

Reading the passage on the River Nile…
It was tough for some kids but I was amazed at how well they could comprehend it and so confidently and after reading it just once…I learnt something there as well…

This one little girl, was struggling with the passage she was reading to me… and I was unsure of whether she would make it to the end… so she was going along slowly… and I was being as patient as I could… and as she approached the word ‘neighborhood’, I was certain she would not make it but she took a couple of minutes, looked me in the eye and said it!! Wow... she deserved a hug…

So I ask this little fellow ‘What comes before Sunday?’
‘Holiday, didi!!’
Right answer!!

Values assessment, level 3… ‘Can you tell me a few things that are common between India and Pakistan?’ got some interesting answers to this one…
‘People are the same’
‘They also pray, didi.’
‘Children in Pakistan also go to school.’
‘Children also wear Akanksha t-shirts there didi?’ (someday my dear…I thought…)

So I read a Math problem to this boy who has the naughtiest gleam in his eyes and I know I can expect some kind of mischief… I read it out seriously in my no-nonsense-didi voice - You have 2 rupees in your pocket and your mother gives you 6 rupees. How much money do you have in your pocket?
‘Two didi’ he smiles
Think again I urge…
‘My mother won’t give me the money didi’… and he laughs out loudly…

Hearing the story of how one of our teacher’s trying to get assessments done from this boy who is always truant around assessment time… the image of determined shefali running through the narrow dark alleys of cuffe parade holding crisp white sheets of assessments towards vicky’s house as the whisper in the community spreads like wild fire ‘Vicky run… shefali didi is here…Run Run’.

laughs apart, its been real good to be in centres… its such a tough job to be teachers and i salute them each for the many hours of painstaking efforts, unflinching belief and determination with which they go through each good and bad day...

painting...

Working on a painting… it’s the most exciting thing ever… I’ve stopped painting at night cos then I just simply cannot sleep!! I get so worked up and jumpy about how it looks with the addition of every little bit of paint! So now I simply have to get up super early to work on it… but gosh it makes me so happy…
Incredible how the simple act of dabbling paint on canvas and watching it shape into something, can give me so much peace… it makes me forget everything and everyone who does not matter… makes me see everything so much more clearly cos very often my mind untangles and the most complex structures of thought look like simple shapes after all that got all muddled up…
Its so important to have something you have in your life that helps you just be and in no way judges you… my art and my music do just that and more… They are as much my basic necessities as food or water… I’m one of the few who knows that and can give them their due respect…Ever painted with an audience? Even better… to hear my mum hug me suddenly to show tell me I’m a genius (not fooling myself into believing that even one tiny bit!!) its one reason I love being home… the positive vibes… this sense that my strengths are my strengths and nothing can belittle or take than away from me…

urdu poetry

There’s something about urdu poetry that I find very attractive and engaging…
it’s the way the words roll of your tongue…
its how smooth they feel…
the way the words come together to begin with…
there is a simplicity that is quite delicious…
sometimes, late evenings, when you really could do with some company, they have a way of coming to your rescue…I almost always wish I was uttering those words to someone… reading them aloud to someone who felt them...
there is a certain respect towards each emotion…
there is an enigma in brevity…
and then there are the emotions some of the poems evoke…

bas ik jhijhak hai yahii haal-e-dil sunaane me.n
ki teraa zikr bhii aayegaa is fasaane me.n

baras pa.Dii thii jo ruKh se naqaab uThaane me.n
vo chaa.Ndanii hai abhii tak mere Gariib-Khaane me.n

isii me.n ishq kii qismat badal bhii sakatii thii
jo vaqt biit gayaa mujh ko aazamaane me.n

ye kah ke TuuT pa.Daa shaaKh-e-gul se aaKhirii phuul
ab aur der hai kitanii bahaar aane me.n

kaifi azmi

kabhii yuu.N bhii to ho

kabhii yuu.N bhii to ho
dariyaa kaa saahil ho
puure chaa.Nd kii raat ho
aur tum aao

kabhii yuu.N bhii to ho
pariyo.n kii mahafil ho
ko_ii tumhaarii baat ho
aur tum aao

kabhii yuu.N bhii to ho
ye narm mulaayam Tha.nDii havaaye.n
jab ghar se tumhaare guzare.n
tumhaarii Khushbuu churaaye.n
mere ghar le aaye.n

kabhii yuu.N bhii to ho
suunii har ma.nzil ho
ko_ii na mere saath ho
aur tum aao

kabhii yuu.N bhii to ho
ye baadal aisaa TuuT ke barase
mere dil kii tarah milane ko
tumhaaraa dil bhii tarase
tum nikalo ghar se

kabhii yuu.N bhii to ho
tanahaa_ii ho, dil ho
buu.Nde.n ho, barasaat ho aur tum aao
kabhii yuu.N bhii to ho

javed aktar

lemon rings

Lemon rings swirling lazily on a Sunday afternoon…sploshing and splishing as they bounced off the rim of the mug… wild and free… their fragrance hovering over them… their colour oozing out slowly…lemon tea and swings… full trees and fragrant earth… cloudy skies and the warm breeze… waiting to get drenched and feel myself loosen up and cave in to the weather… missing the rain…