'Good' Schooling- the BIG challenge in Mumbai!

We were a land once known for our biggest tangible and intangible asset- education. India was lauded for the products of its sound education system. Have we lost it somewhere along the way or am I looking in the wrong direction.

By far my boys have been to three different schools in Mumbai - two of them very popular- and all have been major disappointments :(. This time having moved a more central location in the metropolis, school admissions were a bigger challenge than preparing for a big war! The two High and Mighty names around Powai are both extremely high-nosed about even talking and feel the only people worthy of communicating with visitors are their watchmen (who are haughty and audacious emperors in their own right!). I happened to meet a parent of one of the Biggies and what she had to say stunned me.. quote unquote ' Scottish are sticky about everything,but where is the choice in Powai?'- and here I was considering myself unlucky for not being able to get past their heavily guarded main gate...She added, ' there's nothing great about the school but unfortunately we run after brands and brand names even if they are well past their selling date'.

The schools offering the international syllabus seem to be the only ones offering admissions but then how are the kids passing from these schools going to shape up and how practically equipped will they be to deal with life after school is a BIG question!

As I picked up my little one from his cricket lessons I was still wondering which is the place to get them a sound education?

The Perspicacity of Mommyhood

This weekend we decided to watch the latest release by Priyadarshan - a horror cum comedy supposedly, but by the quirk of fate and our desperation to watch a film , landed in the theatre showing 'Laga Chunri me Daag" ...(I guess what prompted me to buy the tickets was a remaining vestige of liking for Abhishek Bacchhan and the new found admiration for Kunal Kapoor and Konkona Sen) Well, so Rul n I landed there with both by sons. The theme is a hackneyed one ,thats been done to death in Indian Cinema.As per the theme demands there were some uncomfortable moments in the film for me as a Mum of two under 10 kids. My elder, by now, knows to keep shut and ask explanations later but its plumb impossible to keep my younger one from asking questions at the most inopportune moments. I was prudent when I anticipated the first uncomfortable one coming and pulled him out of the hall on the pretext of visiting the wash room. But I knew there was more to come...and it did..and this was the tough test of my ingenuity. So before the next awkward question could pop up from my junior I tickled him thoroughly and coochie cooed him and Voila!! he forgot all about it!! So it went on till we reached the better part of the film where there was mostly song and dance and the happy ending. In the end I could only say" Laga Chunri...Se BHAAG!!!!

Englees re defined...

We can never do away with out Angreji Prem and keeping up with the traditions I have set up the compulsion for both my children to write down and memorize five words from the dictionary every day every day( Dad would make me do that as a kid). This rigmarole has been on for almost a month now. I decided to do a memory check....
Results - the elder one remembered 60 % of what he learnt.
The younger tiger redefined Englees...Check out some...

Desert- no water and everywhere sandy sandy!!
Desk- When one Ma'am m goes and the other Ma'am comes where we put our notebook that is a 'desk'
Dessert - something like I scream, chocolate ....a sweetdish...yes!!!( triumphantly!!)
and on and on it went...

How little ones make your day....

Humans are strange animals.Look forward to outings as a change as long to get back home to the familiarity and comfort shortly after they have been out. Well ,after having spent a hectic weekend of outing we valued Oct 2 like never before... relaxing and watching "Gandhi" for the Nth time on TV. Lazing around in full majesty...'We personify lathargy' as my little Rul rightly puts it .Amidst this lazy mist came a request from my younger son"The whole family ,please assemble". So the three of us, assembled around him agog with interest as to what he wanted to show us...He came forward very shyly (highly uncharacteristic of him!!) with something clutched firmly behind. " Well what is it?!! Please show!!! ...We wailed...After much persuasion he extended a badly crushed, ripped sheet bearing these words (in his lovely cursive hand) - 'I love Papa and Mamma, I love Raghav'. We were touched ..But the indefatigable didactic Mother inside me had to peep out with a " Why is Raghav not suffixed with Bhaiya?" ..." I did'nt know how to spell it and asking you would have taken the surprise away", he replied in a small voice.....I dont have words to describe how small I suddely felt...

Dental Dilemmas....

"Oh Mum...you've got me killed!!" exclaimed my elder son after a visit to the dentist yesterday. It was a matter of overlapping milk and permanent teeth..quite like the adolescent state of mind which I feel my almost-eleven year old son is gradullay inching towards
( much to my chagrin..Oh to think of Adolescent Troubles ...I shudder!!!)
Well, at the mere mention of the monstrous 'extraction' , horror leapt up and his eyes swam....."They may not extract" -I tried to assuage his fears.."But they may" he promptly replied..It reminded me of some very potent lines by Ogden Nash which I read during my under grad years-

"Because some tortures are physical and some are mental,
But the one that is both is dental.
It is hard to be self-possessed
With your jaw digging into your chest..... "

To add insult to his injury my younger son piped in " Thank God its over for the next six month at least".....

Little Boys

Could'nt have found a better piece to post as my first one...A true mommy's heart wrote this one...

"Grubby fingers, a cheeky grin
Wriggly worms and snails in a tin
climbing tree's, no danger seen
Walking around in a dream
Lego by the truckload
Scattered o're the floor
Never ever to be picked up
'Tis not a little boy's chore
skating, skate boarding, riding a bike
Fishing 'till it's dark at night
Shirts hanging out, laces untied
Love them or hate them, you can't decide
And then at your heart strings they surely tug
When out of the blue they ask for a hug
You forgive all the tantrums, and harsh words they've said
It's snuggles and cuddles, it's now time for bed"