My Handprint

November 14, 2008 - Children's Day - Aarzoo's handiwork at school. The words stapled to this piece of art had me all choked up.

My Handprint

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls
But everyday I am growing big
And soon I will be very tall
Then my hand prints
Will be hard to recall
So here is a special handprint
Just so that you can say
This is how my fingers looked
When I placed them here today

My baby turned six last month. Soon she will be ten and inch into her teens and there will be major battles for independence. And turf wars that will leave me battle worn, tired and weary. But for now I retreat into my maternal corner and let the "Kaveri" flow

Mommy Rupan

Some smses that I receive are really cute. Here is one such that I cannot help sharing with you all. I was sitting through a really boring meeting; post lunch session trying hard to keep awake as I have yet to master the art of sleeping with my eyes open and pretend to be really interested and make intelligent noises. Currently I have only managed to ensure that I do not snore. Yes one of the fallouts from feminine graces post pregnancy. Damn the diaphragm and the fat!!! So here I was almost falling off my chair when this sms from Rupan came through. Rupan - soul sister, friend, critic, sounding box, huge support system, and loads more - all rolled into one. She sends me the cutest and also the naughtiest messages that have me falling off my chair and rolling with laughter. Thank goodness this was the cute one else I would have had all eyes on me and would have had to leave the room aka the mishief maker in class

"Well wishers are like
the walls of a home
Sometimes they hold you
Sometimes you lean on them
And sometimes
Its just enough to know
They are around you!"

Well that just about sums up Rupan's presence in my life. Nine years ago today, she was handed yet another leading role - Mommy to Rakshita. Now this is not to take away from the very special day of the birthday girl but a time to reflect, atleast for me, and to pay tribute to her best friend - her mommy.

P.S: Happy Birthday Rakshita. I love you and you are always in my thoughts. You are special because you are you. You light up our lives in ways both big and small and in the radiance of your smile, it is easy to turn away the dark clouds of despair and bring in the sunshine of hope.

Balloons

This is again a cute forward but did not threaten me with "dire consequences"

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't

Believe everything happens for a reason..

If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it.

Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

Friends are like balloons; once you let them go,

you can't get them back. So I'm gonna tie you to

my heart so I never lose you. Send this to all your

friends including me and see how many you get

back. Send this balloon to everybody you like. You

may also return it to me. Send a lot of little balloons to

your friends!!!

Good Karma

I am constantly besieged by forwards on e-mail urging me to read the pieces and forward it to "n" number of people, it should leave my hands in "x" number of hours, not to break the chain and so and so forth, else bad luck would befall. These were the new age chain letters that I used to get as a kid. India in the seventies and the eighties had a lot of them. The carrot for not breaking the chain in those days was that it would create a world record and find a mention in the Guiness Book. You have no idea how much of my precious pocket money I have wasted in this exercise. Added to that I also ran errands and did odd jobs to earn a little extra to take care of the postage. Really a stupid, naive fool.

Anyway back to this story. In the early days of being on the net and some, I used to diligently do as told. It was my way of sending good wishes and also letting friends and family know that I was thinking of them and not sending a mere forward. Until one day my sister Tulsi threated to spam me. I was most upset that this "mere chit of a girl", the baby I had once held in my arms had the temerity to "talk" to me like that. However, I realized that not everyone would appreciate what I was doing and rightly so. These were friends and family, my loved ones that I was sending them to and it was certainly not on that my mails would carry threats of dire consequences if instructions were not followed. No matter whether or not one believed in these things. My baby, that mere chit of a girl had taught me an important lesson in cyber space courtesy; I had to hand it to her.

But then there were those who sent me these forwards and meant well. They truly wanted me to receive the blessings and be safe, prosper, be happy, get a windfall, etc. etc. I could not let them down either. Quite a dilemma. That is what it was until a few minutes ago when I had this brilliant idea. Hereinafter, I was going to put up these forwards that I liked on my blog. That way the world would read the piece and I would meet more than my target of "x" number of people to forward it to. Also the people reading it did not have to forward it or face any consequences or any such thing.

Really I surprise myself with my ingenuity and genius!!! Genius??? Just kidding, dear reader. Here is the first of these forwards.....Enjoy

Inclusive Education

This piece was written by Elu, a dear friend and colleague at Raksha (www.rakshasociety.org) in Cochin. She probably does not know or does not remember but she is also Aarzoo's Godmother. A few days ago she sent me this by e-mail and I told her that I was going to put it up on my blog with a few edits. Did not ask her just told her.........because these are my thoughts too and I could not have penned them down any better!! And knowing Elu, she is not going to start blogging anytime soon, so world please thank me for sharing this with you!!

Inclusion recognizes an individual's right to be treated equally. It aims to impart the same services and opportunities as everyone else. Inclusive Education in its ideal form is useful for both children with disabilities and also typical children. It also sensitizes the policy makers to build an inclusive society which will be efficient and ultimately useful for all the citizens and not to a selected group. The issue is: are we doing this just because we are one of the signatories of the UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) which forces us to implement the concept or are we really recognizing the fundamental right of a person to have an opportunity to learn, achieve and function as everybody else? I do hope it is the latter which not just signals a mature approach to education but also reflects a true and deep understanding of the universal nature of education itself. An effective inclusion in pedagogical terms requires sensitivity and a change in attitude towards the needs of a child with disability. The education system must be flexible and adaptations not only in teaching methodologies but also in the built environment - like the approach road to the school, the main gate, the main entrance, classrooms and toilets - are a necessity. Inclusion offers a child with disability an opportunity to cope with the challenges of the outside world. After all when these children grow to be adults they are not going to live in a special environment, they are going to live in regular society.

Elizabeth Philip

Rehabilitation Psychologist

Raksha Society for the Care of

Children with Special Needs,

Kochangadi, Kochi-2

Instinct vs Logic

I have a problem with logic; yeah go ahead and make snide remarks about women and logic! But hope you will hear me out.

If you speak of instinct well then now you are talking and I am a firm believer of this little niggler which watches out for most of us. Where logic is concerned, I tend to treat it more like I would my child. Let me explain.......instinct to me is more me more something that was born with me so it is more a part of me that I can trust and rely on. But logic is a different matter altogether. It reeks of potential in the future and as a woman I would say that it is to me the same as the potential to bear a child.

Women and instinct and I think - Calpurnia. Have not done much Shakespeare, so I hope I got it right.

Logic - yes at workplace

Loads of people I have met who keep referring to logic to disrupt proceedings

Many a time logic stops you from actually listening to a person and assimilating the information he/she is providing. Instead you are listening to the conversation that is going on in your head with yourself. Which is fine if you are at the workplace and at your workstation when it is important for you to challenge yourself in order to ensure that the project/report/paper or whatever it is you are working on meets the deadline......

But when you are having a dialogue with another person, a physical entity, then surely it is disrespectful to say the least if one does not listen to the other's point of view.
...................................................................................

I found this draft while looking through my blog. This was dated last August so I am not even sure if I wrote it. But hey I second these thoughts and this was in my draft list, so what the hell.....

In case you who is reading this at this point is the one who wrote it, then by all means take credit love.....

If it is indeed I who wrote it then I am darned sure that I had more to add but as my fingers pummel the keys into words, I have no idea what it was that I wanted to say. But I hope what is said would suffice and that it says it all......

An Anonymous Poem

This little piece is again courtesy Aarzoo's school and Padma Aunty, the administrator. I loved it and had to share it. The lines are few but say a lot more than tomes on pedagogy in a library. I am not going to spoil it with my commentary save to say that it works.........

I tried to teach my child with books
He gave me only puzzled looks.
I tried to teach my child with words
They passed him by often unheard.
Despairingly, I turned aside,
"How shall I teach this child?" I cried
Into my hand, he put the key,
"Come," he said, "play with me".