Recreation

I have never been good with the telephonic conversations, never. I thought I would improve after having travelled far away from home. It’s almost been one year since I left home but I am yet to see any substantial improvement! One improvement though is that I don’t ask “Vechidattuma?” (shall I cut the call now?) every 2 minutes any more. That in itself is a big achievement. But there is a big problem area that I would have to improve upon – “Faking my mood”. It might sound really insignificant. How does it matter might be the question. But when you are thousands of miles away from home, when every word you utter and the tone that you speak in is being taken seriously (which obviously does not happen when you are at home) it’s very important. Because you might end up in trouble like how I did last week.

Last Sunday was one heck of a day. For some strange reason I wasn’t at my best. Nothing worked. I was bored to hell. I tried to read a book but I got no further than the first page. I tried calling up a couple of friends, one wasn’t reachable and the other was not in a position to talk (he was travelling. Don’t think otherwise), even G- talk was deserted. Such was my mood that even “Friends” series was a bit boring.

That is when I had to take a call from my parents. Now, talking to parents over the phone even if I am in a good mood is tricky, let alone talking to them whilst in bad mood. I say it’s tricky because more often than not I end up either giving too much information and get them to worry or give them very little info and run into the risk of answering their wild imaginations. Maintaining this balance is a big challenge.

So yes, my parents called and I carefully (or so I thought) cut the call down in a few minutes saying that I was tired and I wanted to sleep. I didn’t want to let them know that my mood wasn’t upbeat because that would prompt some obvious questions like why? What happened? Etc … I believe everyone would know the pain in answering these questions. My parents sounded like as if they were very understanding (again…so I thought).It also made me believe that I had improved my ability to fake things over the phone.

Imagine how bad I must have been in faking my mood if my father had mailed me the below link saying “an interesting site”
http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome
When I saw the link, I was actually fine with it. As in, I thought I had only failed with the faking part. Little did I know that I had actually painted a picture far worse than the actual one. To help you understand the extent to which my faking had failed I have pasted the first Q & A from FAQ’s section in Mood gym (Below).

What is MoodGYM?
MoodGYM is an innovative, interactive web program designed to prevent depression. It consists of five modules, an interactive game, anxiety and depression assessments, downloadable relaxation audio, a workbook and feedback assessment.
Using flashed diagrams and online exercises, MoodGYM teaches the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy – a proven treatment for depression. It also demonstrates the relationship between thoughts and emotions, and works through dealing with stress and relationship break-ups, as well as teaching relaxation and meditation techniques.

I had a hearty laugh. Yes! i’ve fooled my father, just that he thinks that I am a little mentally ill now. It doesn’t make a big difference or does it?

This post has been published by me on the occasion of the Teachers' Day as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 2; the second edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

5/09/09



M. Govind
Roll number:12
?,Always 'C'section


Short answers (2 marks)
1) What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of teachers?
Teachers are the worst villains. Not all are villains. But the villains certainly outnumber the good ones by quite a big margin. (0 Marks)
2) Think rationally and write in a few words about your teachers.
Kudos to all those teachers who had the patience to read through my answer sheets after being impressed with my neatly written name and roll number, after which I promptly disappointed them with my not-so-neatly written answers. Because if I had evaluated my papers, I would not have reached any further than primary school. (2 Marks)

Answer in brief (5 marks)
1) What are your thoughts on teachers and teaching profession in general? (I should impress my teacher here... common 5 marks.)
Teaching is one of the noblest professions around. Teachers have always been taken for granted. They have been (and will be) expected to work their magic on kids on whom even their very own parents have lost hope. They forgive and forget our mistakes day in and day out with magnanimity that people from other profession can match only in dreams. (3 Marks)
2) Do you aspire to be a teacher some day in your life?
I would never want to be a teacher myself. Because even if someone curses me to the extent that I have cursed my teachers I am doomed .I can’t stand people who don’t listen to me when I talk. I can never put myself into a position where people make fun of me all day, call me by atrocious nick names and wish I would fall sick every day. (4 Marks)
Answer in detail (10 marks)
1) Compare teachers now and teachers of yesteryears.
When you talk of teachers now and teachers then you always get an impression that teachers were better then. Why is that so?

It might have nothing to do with the standard of teaching. It might be only because we have nothing else to believe other that what we hear from our elders. Elders keep telling us that teachers in those days were more sincere, dedicated etc. We listen to this happily and we are not even ready to validate this. Because we would love everyone to believe that we don’t have good teachers. After all you have an extra reason to fall back upon for scoring poorly.

Teachers today face a far greater challenge than what teachers faced then. Until recently apart from the normal troubles like students murmuring in the class what bigger problem could a student create? Probably eat in the class!! Now? Mobiles, Mp3 players, PSPs what not? I can never imagine our elders being as eloquent as we have been. Would they have ever voiced their opinions? Would they have ever been as disobedient as we have been? You know the answers don’t you? There are so many distractions around us. What distraction do you think our parents would have had? Probably radio… It must have been far easier to make a kid read. So teachers today have a herculean task at hand.

Having said all that, teachers today have their own shortcomings. Money has driven teaching standards to lower levels. Teaching is a profession, yes. People have to make money out of it, yes. They need not do it as a service, yes. But should money be the only motive? No. With all the tuition centers around, teachers are more concerned about making money. They try and allure students at school to join their tuition centers. This defeats the whole purpose of having schools and hampers the profession of teaching in general. (6 Marks)
Complementary question
Would you like to thank any teacher at all?
Although I don’t like this idea of tuition, I have enjoyed tuition centers. I met the best amongst my teachers in one such tuition. She taught me math in my +1 and +2.She is the first one who comes to my mind when I think of teachers I like. I owe a lot to her. I would like to believe that teachers of today are far better than teachers of yesteryears just for her sake. Total : 16/24 (oops!! there is a totalling mistake...but when you get more who cares . LOL)

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton are Vipul, Rajalakshmi, Dhiman, Ranee[1], [2], [3] , Avada, Indian Pundit, Sojo, Aneet, Pramathesh, Aativas, Sid, Pra, Ajinkya, Lakshmi, Shilpa, Bharathi, Shankar, Mytuppence, Azad, Pawan, Pankaja, Saimanohar, Guria, Shruti, Vishnu,Nasrajan and Richa. Click on their respective names to read their posts on Teachers : Aaj Kal. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.