Career, anyone?----Sunday Scribblings

Sunday Scribblings wants us to recall about our first jobs, worst jobs, dream jobs..

Soon after I completed my studies, I have been into teaching. I finished my post graduation in chemistry and got a teaching degree, which resulted in a teaching post.

My first job was in a school nearby which mainly consisted of students from Iran. Way back in 1990, just before the onset of gulf war, many Iranians had arrived in Delhi and were trying to assimilate into the Indian set up. That particular school had majority of Iranian students as compared to Indians. I do not recall having any problem with that other than the fact that those 15-year-olds were much taller than me and tried to flirt with me. In a way, it was a good experience for me. Trying to teach Chemistry and Mathematics to students who were not much interested in studying.

After a few months of teaching in that school, I got posted into a school run by the Government. That was a huge shock. In such a setup, students come from the so-called lower strata and are mostly first-generation learners. Infrastructure is nothing much to speak of. The classrooms are falling apart, no electricity, no water and sometimes, there are very few toilets. There is a dearth of blackboards too, what to talk of chalks. I have been teaching in government schools for 16 years now but the scenario has not changed much. These factors are huge challenges for any teacher and of course students too. The negative factors do not discourage the students. They are very enthusiastic to learn. That is one major incentive. For all our efforts we get their love and affection unreservedly. I would call that reward enough. I like to interact with my girls, helping them as much as I can. A few belong to such families where they are abused by their own fathers. We deal with that too...

I do like what I am doing. Teaching under-privileged girls is satisfying enough if we are able to make even a little difference in their lives. It is always a pleasure to meet any of them who after leaving school, do well in life. However, I sometimes wish to be a librarian of all things! That’s because I love reading, I love the smell of books. Once I considered that but my love for teaching out weighed that!

Back to square one!

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What sentimental endings?----[Fiction] Friday

Here’s this week’s challenge:
[Fiction] Friday Challenge for October 12 2007:

Use this quote as the spark for anything you want.

“I’m not one for sentimental endings. Not this time.”

What I am going to write here is not fiction. This post is on my love for book, for reading. How does it fit in Friday fiction? It does not but the quote does albeit indirectly.

Every first week of Jan, April, July and October are taken as Buy A Friend A Book. In this week, one is supposed to buy books for friends for no reason. I do buy books for my friends and family. I too buy books for myself. That is not same as getting books as gifts though.

For the past two weeks, I am having a lucky streak winning six books from various draws on the net world, from all over the world. I cannot explain the thrill of winning books….a few of which are unheard of. The anticipation of holding the book like the first touch of a lover without knowing anything about it is not easy to explain. One has to go through the process. Maybe I am going overboard saying it!

Can anyone be sentimental about books? Well, I am. I am not ashamed of saying it either.

Now for the list of books I won:

1) American Gods by Neil Gaiman from Dewey
2) The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult from Steve and Shaz
3) Nineteen Minutes Jodi Picoult from Steve and Shaz
4) Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult from Literary Feline
5) Town House by Tish Cohen from Jane
6) Downsizing Your Home with Style by Lauri Ward from Collins Nonfiction

I have only received American Gods till date. Others will follow soon enough. Despite my not giving in to stupid sentimental feelings, don’t you think the above books are reason enough for me to dance? The books which are from people I have not met, are a great spark for such feelings.

Yippee!!!

internalised----3WW and Totally Optional Prompts!

Initial, Knock, Weather

For totally optional prompts, I offer this as I think it goes with the prompt well. I interpret it this way!

taking the photographs out
appraising those with wonder.
initial euphoria receding like hairline
I sort through, throwing a few
with a knock onto memory.

ever changing weather mirrors
but absorbs too, darkest turns to light.
pictures come and go, enjoyed yet
ignored. ones that camera never captured.
internal experiments of the soul.

leafy tale----Writers Island

This time the prompt is to write about renewal.

I have stayed too long up here
swaying softly in sweet scented zephyr.
sensing the movement of sap
in my lucid veins
my alteration to crimson, ginger and russet,
the vibrant emerald of my youth waning.

I enjoyed the freedom of sway,
suppleness for a time,
the buzzing of bees,
the smell of my blossom cousins,
wonder of fruit laden trees
bent double with the bounty.

however, one has to move on.
sap has frozen in my veins
thoughts of softly drifting down
and touching the earth below me -
only seen till date but never felt -
brings peace to my mind.

letting loose my grip
I slowly make myself glide to lie
silently with my older sisters,
feeling the tender prod of worms
I toss back into earth, dreaming again
of budding blossoms in the spring.

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night nods--unpoem---Monday Poetry Train

black vines intertwine
in countryside.
myriads of flower
bloom on muddy soil.
pitch dark, the night nods.

itching mosquito bite
enhances a yawn-
as wide as darkness,
reflecting ennui.

"moths still dance"

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Sorry----Sunday Scribblings

Sunday Scribbling is a great blogging community. It is more a family where we post each week to a prompt. When I checked in for this Sunday, there was this post saying...sorry…no scribble this week! Shocking to say the least! A Sunday without scribbling? How is that possible?

I again went there wanting to go around those people who had commented and found that sorry has been made into a prompt. That pleased me no end and from the comments there, most of the bloggers too!

Now what does one write about sorry? It is such an abused word. So much used that it has lost its meaning altogether. We say sorry for no apparent reason, meaninglessly. We do a wrong, we say sorry. Someone else that a wrong, we feel sorry. Sorry does have a whole gamut running through it. We do not give it much thought before saying it. Lip service, as it can be called.

We need to ponder over it. What does it mean? When we say it, do we mean it? Should we say it even when we know it is not our fault? Sometimes we say it for others. To cover for them. Do we need to do that?

Sorry should never be taken lightly, neither by the person who says it nor the person who receives it. It has to come from the heart. It has to touch the heart. Only then sorry can really mean something other than a mere empty word…

Fallen angels!-----[Fiction] Friday

[Fiction] Friday Challenge for October, 5 2007:
Use the first line of a nursery rhyme (your choice) to start your own story.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water

born on the same day
inseparable since birth
both always had a say

about what went on in
the other’s life. toddler
days were not to be seen

for sometime now, even
childhood was left behind
adolescent feelings driven

to core. hormones bubbled
jumping forth. unfamiliar it
was too. step that stumbled

was no surprise. climbing hill
was but only an excuse. dread
after the deed added to thrill

to escape from parent's fury
they fell and faked self-injury!

skip it!--------3WW

All you poetry lovers do read my review of A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver!

You can safely skip this poem or read it at your peril. Writer's block is not conducive for good poetry. What the hell even Keats wrote trash at times!!

Feather
Misplaced
Useles

feather rhymes with leather
thinking of writing a poem
i am at the end of my tether

my judgment seem misplaced
trying to collect the words
i got those even more displaced

itching fingers type in trash
writer’s block makes me useless
maybe I should start afresh

chain of being---Writers Island

asks us to write about "The Journey"

ubiquitous pip of that apple
shaken to the core
righted itself

tiny in size
ever so gifted
it knew what was expected of it

voyage from earth to fruition
had been arduous
so very tiring

no way it had
deterred him from
his pre-ordained chain of being

it awaited yet again for its turn
to be germinated into
excursion of life

holing into soil
half woken up dreams
culminated into a tree of stature

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severence---Monday Poetry Train

i am exiting
in maladroit motion
as i did
so many months ago.

i speculate
what have you done
where have you gone
stretching the hours

for miles, for dreams
beyond my reach.
we ought to have
known this, you and i.

you did not envisage
how parting would fill
my imagination to the
point of collapse.

i stopped dreaming in shade
or in image and sound.
yet i see deeply, further
enough into this distance

to connect skewed view
to string stars
toward each direction
i have ever known.

..now i walk alone..

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