Celebrating life!

Today I will be attending Dr. Elizabeth Kurien aka Ms. Prema’a farewell lunch (for those of you who don’t know her she’s my former teacher at B.C.M., former H.O.D. & much more). I just thought it would be appropriate to pen down (or rather type) some of my reflections on her. For the past six months or more, she’s been the only person persistently insisting I return to B.C.M. again as faculty. Nobody else even seems to think about such a prospect. Perhaps she realized how much some of the girls meant to me. Or maybe she realized that nobody else was bringing in the dramatic changes that I had somehow managed to bring in. Whatever it is, she has been doggedly persistent that I return no matter what, and firmly believes I will be back next year to take the college head on. That’s faith for you. My student recollections though of this persistent person are of a rather different sort. She was one of the quietest people in the department, so quiet that you may not have even noticed sh...

I’m in a state of euphoria. You, my reader, will wonder why and come to the conclusion that I have finally found love. But that is not the case. It is thanks to an article I read in the morning paper that has put me in seventh heaven. Now what is this wonderful article you may ask. Is it about the arrival of my favourite movie hero? Or about some new movie that I have been dying to see? Unfortunately it is none of these but a very simple article on the front page that said MG University is to grant autonomy to its colleges. Now you will begin to think – what a thing to celebrate! But for me it is indeed a time for celebration. You see, teaching at BCM for the past two years, I have been living with the pain of the knowledge that here indeed would be chance for improvement and change if only autonomy would be granted at the university level. This would allow a college to set and structure its own syllabus and introduce any new course that it deems fit, provided it meets the standards. J...

When I saw the reader’s digest insert asking readers to talk about the teacher who had made a difference in their life, I immediately knew I had to talk about not one but a bunch of them, or more precisely the English Department at B.C.M. College, Kottayam (Kerala) where I studied for my under graduation. At its zenith the department consisted of 14 teachers and just walking into that tiny but overflowing department was an experience in itself. Almost all of them have retired now but I seem to have managed to keep in touch with them precisely because of what they did to me. But I need to do flashback here if I need to make myself understood. My childhood, unlike those of most children my age, was a very quiet one. Living in a flat is the bane of the Gulf emigrant. And not being from a hi-fi family ensured I didn’t have too many activities to worry about. Added to that my shyness ensured I was a very quiet and withdrawn child. So when I was forced to return to ‘God’s own country’ thanks...

Wonder if you ever wondered why good teachers are always so happy and young? I used to wonder and I discovered its secret a long time ago… when I was doing under graduation, to be precise. The big secret to their vitality is the fact that they are always around young people. Yes, it’s the youth that they deal with that keeps them so uppity. I didn’t really believe that till I became a teacher myself. My students can really perk me up. Why sometimes just thinking about them makes me happy. Met one of my favourite teachers soon after I began my new career and when I shared my thoughts with her she was telling me, that teaching was the most rewarding career. I couldn’t help nodding in agreement coz I was seeing it in front of my eyes everyday. If you still can’t figure it out, just walk into a class as a teacher one day when your at your gloomy worst – the morning greetings that are smiled out to you, the concern they show if you tell them something’s wrong (like when I told my girls that...

I'm back @ college from dis day forth. Back to work, drudgery, lesson planning, figuring out how to teach ... But also back to youth, fun n yes flirting (despite d fact dat i'm in a women's college n i ain't a lesbian). Me feedback session in the first class of the year wasn't what i expected. But o well dats wt feedback's for. My only problem is ppl want me to teach in Malayalam n dat as my friends know is an almost impossible task for me since I live in English. But o well! Life is this way. Meanwhile I hope all the activitiea I have planned out work. Wish me luck ppl!