Newsletter – Last Week’s Today!

Truthfully Yours? Politician!!!

The Sunday Magazine article written by a seasoned Politician Mani Shankar Aiyar, the former Member of the Rajya Sabha speaks candidly about politicians and their fetish to be truthful in their memoirs. I thought, hey it interestingly enervative to speak of memoirs and truth in the same sentence while the profession calls for discretion in the first space.

I found Mani Aiyar’s humor rather forced but then truth did seem to drip from his articles. Even though I felt that expecting politicians to do a exposure of their professional secrets might be a little difficult to accomplish.

So, I am not surprised that the market for memoirs comes with its own set of limitations. I am not a person who is all about reading memoirs that does a reveal all. Please spare me the discomfort of your innards and bedtime stories.

Though, we are in the free speaking and Independent India, where self-governance has its own share of faults. It is incredible to find the rare breed of politicians who have not gone back on their words.

Sometimes writing a CNF had resulted in structuring my thoughts that speaking the truth and nothing but the truth might not be a good way to go. Since truth in its raw form is hard to digest and sadly is served as a cold dish, which then leaves you in a horror of the matter.

Yet we all enjoy the pleasure of reading for more information. Sadly, Mani Aiyar did not include the spouses of the Politicians. “Becoming” is memoir written by Michelle Obama the former first lady of the United States. I found it to be quiet an insightful read. She did maintain the decorum of the White House office and showed that emotions could be truly balanced.

Pondering on this are some of my thoughts on the article itself. That I am trying to understand with an open-mindedness. To remain neutral is a sure cry to get hit.But the question I wish to pose is – Are we really seeking the truth from Politician? Shouldn’t we just be happy they gave us the rose picture all clean picture and did not attempt to remove our rose tint glasses of their profession’s reality.

There is much that we need to understand that when reality is confronted the innocent ones don’t have any place to hide. At some point, there is a mental block for the reader as well as for the writer when topics of great sensitivity are handled with scary sincerity.

Reading about another person faux pas may be a little uncomfortable but the lessons from the failed attempt would provide and impart knowledge for the common good. But how much of it is the reader willing to see and to experience is still a question left in the hands of the debaters who don’t yell to make a point.

Eventually, my interest is perked to read Main Aiyar’s memoir and the warned second book even before the rooster high pitch awakening note in early hours of the dawn of creation. The article was well written slandering colleagues and all but sadly one-sided! Sadly, there is no mention of Women politicians who wrote their office memoirs.

That way I felt almost patriarchal whiff to the article. Though agree sometimes pleasing all age group of audience. Sometimes while writing for a diverse readership, it also means that it is going to highly difficult to manage decorum, truth, not losing face, and tact in a linear line of presentation!

I truly enjoyed myself reading this article though there were places where I felt my humor diminish to zero wondering if I really know sufficiently about the office task that he spoke of in his article. But interest is perked for reading his in-the-pipeline-book or already out on final cut running on a huge monstrous printing machine or final stages of marketing the finished book, I am not sure about it! Did it make the cut for me – yeah sure!

Free Tuition But Lacking User-Friendly Element!

There are moments in life when we approach situations in life with mixed feelings. My latest interest is to teach a 2nd grader English. I’m happy to do it for free but still I feel I don’t qualify for it. To teach a child creatively takes a lot of effort and I only do One-on-One.

The fact that while teaching this child I am exploring my patience limit and my natural lack of knowledge of English grammar. I can read and write in English yes, but then I am bowled over for a duck in teaching it.

There are a lot of methods that I am learning by self-tutoring Maria Montessori methods of teaching a child. Of course, a good reward and punishment might work in the Indian setting. I truly agree with Maria about the child going beyond the reward and punishment and seeing learning activity as a creative act to be inspired.

Then, the question of reward or punishment will be replaced with inspiration to learn. One ingredient that works for tutoring children between 1st grade to 5th grades lies in the act of seeing if child could go on when the prompter vanishes and the famous Hamlet’s line “To be or Not to be.”

For me there lies the question. Personally, I feel that the teachers should set free the children and let them explore once they have their three R’s. But sadly, the Indian education system does not allow such an occurrence.

The way Secondary exams and Higher Secondary exams from various boards are conducted it does prove that the child learnt anything. Do we upscale the educational method? Is Maria’s method still relevant? Do we need to restructure education with the new gadgets and other peripheries.

Now here is a great way to analyze the situation faced by innumerable students. Because I believe education does not stop with your bachelor’s or master’s degree. It goes much beyond the imagination of human capabilities to learn.

When we box in things and expect to come up with the same answers then, sadly, we have missed the collective point of education. I am for happy learning environment and use of props and other material to make the session interactive and helpful.

Eventually at the end of all these efforts is based on the goodwill to share the spirit of learning with the children. I am still looking at the early pedagogue of education and I feel that it is time to move forwards beyond just improvised teaching.

There are so many things that are happening all around us and the children cannot be protected against crudely shaken beliefs and their innocence is no longer maintainable even at a high emotional price.

Nonsense Poems Corner

Book of Nonsense 1, 10, & 12 by Edward Lear

1

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, “It is just as I feared!–
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!

10

There was an Old Man in a tree,
Who was horribly bored by a Bee;
When they said, “Does it buzz?”
He replied, “Yes, it does!
“It’s a regular brute of a Bee!”

12

There was a Young Lady whose chin,
Resembled the point of a pin:
So she had it made sharp,
And purchased a harp,
And played several tunes with her chin.

Source: Book of Nonsense 1, 10 & 12