Thursday, February 19, 2009

Something About Me

Me: Kangaroo… repeat after me, Can-ga-ru… starts with a K!
Kid: Eye yo… teacher you know nothing! It’s Gangaa-roo!
Me: : |
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Me: c for?
Kid: errr…
Me: carrot. C for carrot
Kid: c for carrot.
Me: g for??
Kid: errr…
Me: g for gate... ok?
Kid: yes teacher (with an oh-so-sweet smile)
Me: e for??
Kid: idli?
Me: no. Elephant! Now tell me, c for?
Kid: c for sun, g for jug (yet another sweet smile)
Me: sigh…
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For a long time now I’ve wanted to blog about what’s keeping me busy of late.
I am volunteering at the Olcott Memorial High School, a non profit charitable organization (I had posted about it earlier here) and I absolutely LOVE it :) I had started off with fund raising work which involved traveling, marketing and lots of ECS forms. Now, I teach. Yep!! I have around 250 of my very own students who call me teacher! :D well, at least, most of them do! The 7th and 8th stds don’t though... they think I’m not old enough to look teacher-ish :| I’m a multi specialty teacher :P -> Math/ Computer/ English… how cool am I! :P *wink wink*
And NOW I know what my teachers had to go through with brats like us!
But even when the students are yelling at the top of their voices, pleading with you to let them go to the toilet (8 at a time!), pulling at your salwar, running around the place, complaining about another student (but teacher, he hit me first!) and what not… they are still adorable (mmm… except for when the little ones get a cold… that can get eeewww!) and the kind of respect and admiration they have for a teacher is worth it all :) Plus it’s a great experience to work with such an organization and to interact with the students.
Anyway, so that’s what I’ve been up to… and I also need to make a special mention of the headmistress here… Mrs. Lakshmi Suryanarayanan… Oh. My. God. What an amazing woman! There are very very VERY few people like her! Think I’ll keep my reason for a next post… there’s so much I can talk about the school and what all I’ve learnt from the place. I’m so happy I decided to volunteer there :)

39 comments:

Kartz said...

Beautiful; Just beautiful... I am very happy for you, bud!

I wish you well in this noble enterprise.

Peace. God bless.

Richa said...

wow!!!

ths soo nice yaar..
it is indeed very generous of u..

all the best :)

hugz!!

DMulan said...

thanks a ton Kartz! you know, all of us should do something like this at some point of time... does a great deal of good to oneself and others!

DMulan said...

@ richa
thanks :) but i was not doing anything anyway... and who knows when I'd get this kinda time again?

Kartz said...

Totally agree with you. Totally.

In the words of Sati Al-Husri : education is like the air that surrounds you. It should be made available to everyone. At no cost. After all, the air you breathe is not priced, right?

(That was not exactly in a verbatim, but that is what he had said...)

Peace.

अविनाश said...

simply nice,liked it
god bless

Saim said...

great gng...teaching youngies is a real joy!!!

Rakesh said...

hey really nice thing that you are doin.
And hell ya its when u teach u understand how much pain it was for the teacher to tackle students...

my mum being a teacher everyday shares some or the other funy incident about students and its fun to sit with mum when she checks the answer papers of those tinny tots...

Mahul Bhattacharya said...

It's actually very nice to know that someone is actually directly involved in making this world a better place to live in.

My heartfelt thanks.

Anonymous said...

hey that was so nice!
wish u good luck:)

Trinaa said...

250????? omg..i give tuitions to just 2 kids n they r enuf to send my b.p to the sky!!!!!!!! :(

Anonymous said...

u dont worry, u look old enuf to be a teacher! :D ;)

and a terrific teacher at that! :)

DMulan said...

@ kartz

very true :)

DMulan said...

@ avinash
thank you :)

DMulan said...

@ comfortably numb
yep.. it really is.. fun :)

DMulan said...

@ rakesh
oh i can imagine the kind of anecdotes that can come up... at the end of the day its fun, even though i think i'm going to get a permanently sore throat from all the shouting :P

DMulan said...

@ mahul
glad you put it that way :) makes me feel nice to know that :D
and its not a very difficult thing either.. quite enjoyable and worth every minute of it :)

DMulan said...

thanks meera :)

DMulan said...

yeah 250 in all.. 25 to 20 at a time! yep.. they do pretty much the same thing to me too :P

DMulan said...

@ vinu
:O :O you called me old! haw! :O


:P :P

swati said...

you are doing a splendid job yaar..
there are very few people who take initiative n for these things..the blessings n love you get in return cn't be measured in money it is just out of this world...
keep up the good work..
:)

Anwesa said...

gud!!best of luk!!

Unknown said...

a sweet post and a sweet way of narrating... i wish i cud be a part of this organisation in someother way as i dont have patience to teach kids.. :) u are really doing a great job indeed... hats off!!!

DMulan said...

@ swati
thank you so much :) yes i believe in blessings too! can't ask for anything else now!

DMulan said...

thanks anwesa!

DMulan said...

@ palani
thanks a lot buddy.. oh there's so much one can do.. teaching interests me so took it up that's all! when done for a cause, anything is sweet :)

Vinz said...

Wonderful...!!

Mana said...

That was a nice gesture.. you must be enjoying multitasking between various subjects :)

HP said...

wow ! thats so cool ! you're doing a great job! :))

DMulan said...

@ vinz
thank you. good to see you're back!

DMulan said...

@ manasa
yes i do! :0)

Mysterious Mia said...

wow......thats so nice.....i have been wanting to do soemthing similar too.....n u've re-enforced it onto be back again......

Anonymous said...

Divya,

Nice to know that you are doing something for educating children. I can understand how it feels to be on the other side of table. Keep up with your good work and do share your experiences with us.

Take care

DMulan said...

@ mia
i'm happy that i did :) and you should!

DMulan said...

@ niceguy251
thanks :) will do!

Mysterious Mia said...

fill me in with what NGO is this....anything in Mumbai u know off

Mohammad Umar Baba (Byline: Baba Umar) said...

kool

DMulan said...

@ mia
it is not an ngo per se.. It is run purely on donations and the theosophical society being the top management and major sponsors. it's a charity organization.. pakka proper school till 10th, tamil medium.. mumbai i don't know.. few of my friends used to work for the spastics society in colaba and concern india foundation, somewhere around there i guess.

Bala said...

Divya,

Gr8 to know that you are being involved in such activities. Keep rocking in it.

U know... by involving in such activities, knowingly or unknowingly we become a reason for a positive change in someone else.. that give us a unexplainable pleasure n satisfaction...

and with kids... it should have been a dazzling experience for u I think... I just forget all my worries, when moving with a kid... they just spread loads of happiness n joy into us...