priyadarshini sur's blog

I believe that one need to read to gain knowledge of any subject and leisure reading is the most beautiful way to relax. For those who are avid readers, reading perhaps is the most interesting and pleasurable activity but the present day youth would perhaps defer. They have a plethora of interesting things to keep them engaged, where do have the time to waste on printed words found on paper! For those young people there is the electronic media-the TV with such a wide variety of programmes being aired24*7, the computer abounding with websites.

We all wish to be remembered, don’t we? In our daily encounters we wish to be recognized and greeted by friends and acquaintances. In significant yearly events like birthdays and anniversaries, there is a deep joy in receiving a card, unwrapping a gift or answering a phone call or to hear those heartwarming words.

Being a teacher in the post internet world, where knowledge is available at the click of the button anywhere in the world, I have found that it has a far reaching impact on those who have something to do with knowledge gathering. In a recent parent teacher interaction a parent mentioned in a complaining tone that her child browses internet for doing the assignments and projects given by school.

Three college friends meet after more than two decades and they find there is hardly any change except that they have kids and husband. They meet at their favourite haunt and walking down the memory lane they find they have not forgotten anything.....friends, lecturers, college canteen, lawn, the stairs, reading room, childish pranks, funny jokes..... They talk about their mothers and in retrospect they feel they are much smarter and younger than their mothers at this age.

When my 12 year old son pointed out that my knees sound like door hinge, I felt it’s time to consult a doctor who’ll most probably prescribe some tests and medication.. I take an appointment with the orthopedic. The middle aged doctor very politely asks my problem followed by my profession and my age. Then he asks me to suggest the remedy to my problem. I

Limited Avenues At plus Two Levels

Sheela is having nightmares since last year when her daughter came to ninth standard. She left her comfortable school job to be with her daughter during her preparation for exams and to give her moral support. She takes her for tuition classes in the morning before school and for IIT coaching after school.

I loved my mother’s cooking, especially traditionally Bengali recipies-‘sukto and mochar ghonto ‘..The cream white colour of sukto seasoned with panch phoron( a concoction of fenugreek, fennel, wild celery, nigella and mustard seeds in equal proportions) and its heavenly aroma fascinated me. I observed her cooking since childhood but I never bothered to learn cooking from her. I realized my mistake when I set off on my culinary odyssey and I moved two thousand kms down south from Delhi.

We know about silent letters in the English language. Silent letters have been there in certain words for centuries and if we do not act quickly will continue to remain likewise. Why are they there? I do think that the silent letters are there because no one bothered to take them off!

It was an age of doctors, engineers, civil servants and architects. Software engineers had not been invented – and there was no space for teachers: neither in environment nor in the advertisement columns. School teachers were convenient appendages in the system. They just happened. Teachers, especially school teachers, were taken for granted. Schools needed them. Indeed, society needed them. But why one would become a teacher was nobody’s case. One aspired to be a doctor, civil servant even a movie star but never a teacher.

Letters, not long ago, use to change our worlds.

But things have changed a bit since emails, Facebook and Orkut.
Letters may have been romantic but Facebook is faster and tighter. You know who is doing what and how in real time. It takes seven seconds instead of seven days for a ‘Kodak Moment’ to reach you.