THE JOY OF TEACHING!

            The eventful day of the 13^th of February, 2012 began around 5 am with the cacophony of people around me. After all, the day was to be festooned with those memories including my first stint with teaching, under the banner of ‘Prayas’, that had taken the onus of teaching village kids during a camp of a week. Waking up at such an hour of dawn bribed me to go into my sweetest of dreams, but the thought of teaching for the first time in my life kept me awake. Within an hour I was ready with routine morning activities. Meanwhile I took my exercise till it was time to go for a bath. We were then called upon by Sir for briefing the task to perform for the day. Breakfast was an added booster for the day!

            With all the adrenaline rushing, our team ‘Dakshin’ took the responsibility and moved in the direction of the school whose students we were to teach. One English and one Marathi medium school we were to cover. I thus landed up in the English medium school, where we reached around 9.30 am. To our surprise the classes commenced at 11 am. Yet, the wait was worth!

            The prayer for classes LKG to 2 ended in half an hour. Meanwhile, I engaged myself in photography capturing some of the best moments that would be later treasured for memories. It was pledge-time and all students took it with sincerity, some yawning, rubbing their eyes, looking elsewhere, and making innocent yet funny faces that somewhere reminded me of my school days!

            After prayers, my colleagues and I took charge of our respective classes. Ultimately I was named the teacher of upper KG class! Felt proud to be a teacher to those cute, little angels! A gullible I am when it comes to teaching, the ‘original’ teacher briefed me up about conduction of classes and gave me few books for reference. Starting with A, B, C…the response was amazing, with students shouting at their highest pitches. Later they were asked to identify some shapes followed by which there was a test to identify animals by their pictures. At once I thought of asking them random pictures, but when I started with the first picture all of them started with their ‘rattofied’ (sounds colloquial, yet conveys raw emotions!) answers! I was amazed how they managed to identify animals without showing them their pictures. Chocolates were ready rewards. One thing-bribing works in some cases like these!

            I was then asked by the class teacher to check homework. It was a great feeling as I ticked so many books giving all of them good rewards. I suppose it’s a great experience for all teachers! For a change I went to take photographs of upper class and was surprised as everyone greeted me with great warmth which was something I never expected.

            Lunch time! If it weren’t for the much awaited tiffin, our chances of leaving classes were bleak. Interacting with kids at the village was the best part, blessing me with lessons for life. The most touching part of the day was when I switched to a small girl and asked her to give a hi-five. It was then her friend told me she’s blind. Felt really bad. But her desire to learn and get educated in such a small village held back my emotions.

            Wondering what to do next post-lunch for the rest half school time, a unanimous thumbs-up was voted up for watching ‘Ice Age’. It was an hour before we decided to take up scientific toy making. Toys pertaining to rocket, Bernoulli’s principle, centrifugal force, etc. were made.

            Finally we left for our base camp in the evening after a complete day with the school, taking back loads of pictures and their love.

            And this is how I ended my first teaching experience!

            Even today, the nostalgia of those wonderful day swings in, ushering tears of joy and a sense of gratitude for returning back to the society to which we belong.

Different Strings

The great guitarist Jimi Hendrix once said, “Whoever says money can't buy happiness has obviously never played a guitar!!. Very true indeed! It is sheer pleasure that is derived from playing a guitar. A guitarist completely forgets all worldly possessions, pain, thirst, hunger, hurt, and basically all desire when he plays his instrument.

          The guitar has evolved greatly since its earlier known predecessor, the Latin Guitar, to the modern electric guitar. The modern version of the Latin guitar is the acoustic guitar, which is further divided into 3 categories: the classical guitar, the steel-string acoustic guitar (which is most common and is probably is being played by your room mate right now); and the Archtop guitar.

          The guitar usually has 6 strings, which might go up to 13, depending on the requirement of the musician.

          Acoustic guitars can be classified into many types and many have been designed to cater to specific needs of certain genres of music.

          Classical and flamenco guitars employ widely spaced strings, and shorter necks, which are essential for the finger tapping playing style that classical music and flamenco require.

         Archtop guitars are instruments that are carved in a curve rather than a flat shape, imparting the look and feel similar to that of a violin. Archtop guitars usually have a sound hole in the shape of an 'F' and was adopted by many Jazz musicians.

          A very unusual looking guitar would be the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar. The loud volume and penetrating tone make it suitable for single-note soloing and it is frequently employed as a lead instrument in gypsy swing.

  

      The twelve-string guitar is widely used in folk music, blues, and rock and roll.

      Other guitars include Russian guitars, which come with seven strings, and were widely used by19^th and 20^th century Russian artists. Another type worth mentioning is the Acoustic Bass, which is similar to the electric bass in tuning. The Guitarrón is a Mexican 6 string acoustic bass used in mariachi bands. The Harp guitar has additional 'harp' strings strung over the normal guitar strings.

      Now, let’s come to the modern electric guitar. Sound amplification is done through an external amplifier and not much is audible without one. Magnetic or piezoelectric pick-ups convert the string vibration into current and transmit it to the amplifier via cables or radio signals. Piezoelectric pickups are usually for a more acoustic guitar-like sound. The electric guitar is used extensively in jazz, blues, R & B, and rock and roll.

Truth About Life

              When we were in the 12^th in my school, every once in a while, lets say 2 to 3 months, our principle used to call us into her office for a half hour, to lecture us on stuff like stress management, or the importance of having real experiences in life instead of just spending hours on Facebook, or bullying issues, and the importance of being a good, balanced person. She started the class by telling us to imagine a large jar. She then told us to imagine filling small rocks into it, and asked us if we thought it was full. We nodded and she proceeded to say it wasn't as pebbles could still fill the spaces between the small rocks. Again she asked us if it was full. We agreed. She said it wasn’t, sand would still manage to fill the gaps between the pebbles and rocks. Quite obviously we felt a little dumb for not having thought of it ourselves. 

             She then told us that this jar is a metaphor for our lives. That the rocks are the important things in life like our family friends and loved ones; the pebbles are the other important things like studies, careers, goals, our house, bikes, etc and that the sand represented all the small petty things. She told us that we fill the sand into the jar first; we won’t be able to fit the pebbles or rocks into it. That it was important to prioritize the things in life that are important as concentrating on the small things will leave us with no time for the things that matter like family or our lives goals. It is more important to deal with the rocks in our life first and there is always space left for pebbles and then sand.