06/09/2023
Good Teachers (and Coaches, Mentors, Guides) must always bring a lot more to their work than in any other profession. After all they are dealing with humans! 24/7! They are teaching, training, moulding young minds (even older ones in certain situations) using every possible technique and modality that they can get their hands onto, all the while cajoling, encouraging, modelling, and inspiring their underlings into action! Even after their work hours are done, they carry home the multiple, complex challenges of their pupils, in their hearts and minds, despite having their own homes and families waiting to offload their own challenges onto this teacher!
Teachers are not usually paid what they deserve and yet most of us are just so happy to receive the appreciation and gratitude and blessings from our students! This is what fills our cup! This is what keeps us giving! Some messages just leave me soaking as my cup overflows!
Deeply grateful to Almighty God for all the love and gratitude and appreciation I received on Teachers Day!
Parents, you are the first and best teachers of your child!
Always wear your crown proudly in this role. Your child needs you to show them that every teacher is precious and invaluable. And needs to be respected and appreciated. When they learn to do this at home, they learn to do it at school, college and wherever else’s that they are receiving knowledge.
A good teacher is made with her/his efforts.
A GREAT teacher is made with a dedicated, respectful, diligent and grateful student!
A big thank you to all my students for making me the teacher you love! 🙏🏼
01/09/2023
Do you keep yourself (and your child) Busy or Engaged?
Making back to back plans can appear to keep the mood high, can feel productive and useful, can appear as adding feathers to our cap of accomplishment…then why do they usually leave us grumpy, breathless, anxious, over exhausted, and irritable?
Are they necessary evils that accompany the non-stop busyness?
Filling empty slots of our time has become the norm in today’s stimulation-driven world. In the past, I have found a strong urge to fill up a cancelled time slot with some other things ‘to do’ by spending several minutes searching for them. Empty-ness, Space, Nothingness seemed to have no place in my day. If nothing else came up, I found myself next to the fridge at home (or the coffee machine at work). But it is commonsensical to do this, you might interject.
Yes, it feels logical. Especially when our calendars are dictated by haste, rush and task list completion
Parents go through anxious moments trying to find the next stimulation for their little ones. “She will get bored so I need to have more activities ready for her” is what I hear.
Boredom has become the number one enemy. Busyness is, however, not the same as being Engaged. How do we know the difference?
Here are some of the after effects of constant rush and non stop busyness:
1. Instant high due to a rush of adrenaline followed by a surge in energy demand leading to quick energy depletion and subsequent mental and emotional fatigue
2. Foul moods, fluctuating attention span, a complaining demeanour, zero smiles, a tense body, terse communication
3. Guilt arising out of failing to meet many low-priority commitments which get sidelined by the urgent ones. Extra time needed along with the emotional load of communicating apologies to the parties where you cancelled
4. Reduced joy from fulfilled commitments due to overriding guilt and incomplete feelings from the cancelled ones
My Learnings:
I now think several times before committing to a plan. If it gets cancelled, I say a gratitude to the Universe trusting that this was for my best. I can’t see why and how simply because I don’t have a 360 degree vision. But I choose to trust.
I take the available time to sit doing nothing. I am always pleasantly surprised to note how much calmer and contemplative that makes me. How light and energised I feel after being in that state of Nothingness. I am invariably smiling and people around me find me pleasant to be with! LOL!
26/08/2023
This is a common parent query. I would say it is a common query for everyone. Be it a parent, student, employee, employer, entrepreneur, home maker… Everyone needs a solid, fool-proof support system that they can rely on. One finds a lot of people around them who offer support. But is that reliable? Not necessarily. Offering support is a social nicety. “Let me know if I can be of help” “Just ping me if you need something” “I am just a phone call away”. But we all are aware of how many times we have been disappointed and turned away. Now that’s no one’s fault. Everyone including us have reasons.
So then, what’s the way out? A solution often reached out to is to pay someone to provide support - maids, cooks, drivers, assistants, delivery services, laundry, etc This is one good option. But as an option it often falls short of the personal, timely, and bespoke help that we need in severely or prolonged troubled times. At such times, we need a go-to person. A never-say-never person. A ‘just-tell-me-what-you-want’ person.
Are such persons readily available? Will family members fit the bill? Or parenting partners?
Anyone can fit the bill. Provided they are consciously chosen. And are willingly enrolled into this supportive role. And they have a strong stake in your and their relationship. They will show up only when we have nurtured that relationship sufficiently and long enough. They will be dependable only when we have brought all those characteristics that we seek from them to them through our relationship with them. If we haven’t worked on building and nourishing the relationship, then even if it is family, they may not be counted upon as your primary support system.
18/08/2023
It was an Honour and a Privilege to be invited as the Chief Guest at my Alma Mater, my school now known as The Vissanji Academy, Mumbai. To felicitate the meritorious students of the Class of 2023 and to inspire and encourage them as well as the current Class of 2024.
And that too on India’s Independence Day! 🙏🏼🇮🇳
It was an emotional moment for me. Going back to my school after nearly 4 decades. The school girl inside me was getting goosebumps all through.
Deeply grateful for this honourable opportunity to preside over such a prestigious function!
Kudos and Salutations to the Trustees, the Principal, the Teachers, the Administration faculty and the Assisting Staff for their stupendous efforts resulting in a spectacular achievement of more than 50% of the students scoring 90% and above in the ICSE Board Exams!
Heartiest congratulations to the students and to their parents for their hard work and untiring efforts!
https://www.vissanjiacademy.com/
