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Ishani and her mom were away at Nellore when Ishani's latest Parent-Teacher Meeting was held in mid-April at her Lily School. She was expected to graduate from LKG to UKG (if everything went well).
Ishani's father got cold feet at the last minute to face Ishani's twosome youthful lady teachers all by himself. For, Ishani was not altogether famous for her good behavior in her classroom. In her nursery class they had to change her section since she was found all the time gossiping with her friend in her mother tongue (Telugu) which her teachers didn't know. And they were upset.
So, my son asked me to accompany him to the dreaded P-T Meeting. And I got nervous. For the record, I never went to any P-T Meeting of my son while he was at KGP...either in his St Agnes School or KV later on...he too was not exactly an obedient kid. I sent his mom instead.
So I demurred and asked him why I should go when I am neither her parent nor her teacher. And he shot back that Ishani's two lady teachers know me better than they know him (it is I who fetch Ishani back from her school everyday and her teachers come out and hand her over to me...also they had come to recognize me as the author of the 5 famous 'Ishani Booklets').
I then recalled the Readers' Digest joke:
Didi: Chottoo, go and ask mom for a couple of cookies and bring them
Chottoo: Why should I go? You go. You are elder to me
Didi: But you are mom's favorite
Chottoo: But you have known her longer
Anyway we decided to go there early at 9 so that we would be the first sheep and the teachers would be fresh as daisies and in high spirits.
All went well and we were received warmly by the two ladies and seated and congratulated on the promotion of Ishani to UKG from LKG. We were handed her glorious report card and the two ladies were saying that they feel sorry that Ishani would no longer be there next year in their class and that they would be missing her badly. I was somewhat taken aback and asked the senior teacher:
"Is Ishani no longer naughty in her classroom?"
"Not exactly...she finishes her work early and starts chatting with her friend Varsha in Telugu which we don't understand"
"Don't you ask her not to?"
"I asked her to talk to her friend in English and she came back with the lame excuse: 'Varsha doesn't follow English that well' "
And the two teachers laughed uproariously.
Girls will be girls!
We then had to go to the Office to collect Ishani's new set of books (paying through our noses). And my son hid them high up in the almirah in my bedroom so that they are out of reach of Ishani, fearing that she would soil them even before the new session starts.
Ishani is now back here, and her school starts in ten days. And yesterday both her parents were away for 3 whole hours and I had to engage Ishani for all those many minutes and seconds. Both of us were playing all sorts of mind-games when Ishani started looking for a toy she had hid in my almirah and discovered her new set of books and brought them down getting up on a chair.
And was lost for all of half an hour thumbing her new books gingerly as if they were her newborn babies.
And I got lost in memories of my own school days and the arrival of the set of my new books with their piquant feel and smell.
Our school at Muthukur was not a rich convent school but just a government school without even pucca classrooms. But the first day at a new and higher class was always thrilling. New sheds, new books, and new teachers!
Our books were a bit shoddy even when new. The printers had this nasty trick of joining up two pages at their tops and sides and we had to shear them apart with our little fingers. And they got torn zigzag and it was a messy affair. And we had this trick of not writing our names on the first inside page of our books. We simply wrote:
"This book belongs to: 'See page 78' "
And on page 78 the legend would be:
"This book belongs to: 'See page 22' "
And it went on and on...till the frustrated guy would finally be asked to:
"Flip open the side edge of the book"
And when he did so, he would find:
"G. P. Sastry"
written in a hidden hand. For, we would flip open the side edge ourselves before writing our name across the entire flock of pages with a pen or pencil so that when the book is closed back, the name is not altogether visible unless is it flipped open back again.
Ishani has to now start reading words with 3 letters like cat, mat, rat... But of course she can recognize her name...pattern recognition.
Sometime back when I was browsing my copy of 'Thurber Carnival' gifted by Jogia, Ishani was sitting by my side and happened to watch the wordless story of Thurber's 'Bloodhound and the Bug'. And asked me to explain it to her. Which of course I did gleefully. And she was so impressed by the stark drawings of Thurber that once every 3 months she brings down that fat book from my book rack, opens the relevant page, and asks me to tell her that story again and again and again. Which I do with more and more variations each time. I had blogged it sometime ago:
When I retired from KGP, I gave away all my physics books and kept only my few English paperbacks that I had bought in the 1960s and 70s. I was then a bachelor and paperbacks were very affordable. They are all with me now.
The other day Prof and Mrs P were kindly visiting us from KGP. Prof P had joined KGP as a young teacher in 2000, a few years before I left KGP. And we were attracted to each other by our tastes in Physics and English. His collection of books is hundreds of times larger and varied than mine.
We were expecting their daughter, T, also to visit us along with them but unfortunately she fell unwell at the last minute and couldn't make it. I first saw her when she was Ishani's age at the Tech Market in KGP. Now she is in her final years at the famous KV, IIT KGP. And she inherited her parents' love for English.
So I wanted to gift her a book (via her parents) from my old collection. I could have ordered one from Flipkart but somehow I wanted to pick one from my 1970s books, all of which are well-thumbed and had gone brown and brittle. And I zeroed in on Hilaire Belloc's 'Selected Cautionary Verses'.
It looked to me just the thing.
And I recalled that I had ordered it 40 years ago from Higginbothams at Madras along with a few other books like the 'Book of Bosh' by Edward Lear.
And before I packed it in a cloth-lined envelope, I read it once more and felt good.
And this is the heartwarming thanks-message I got from T:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Do convey my thanks to Ishani for the lovely Puffin book. I liked the
cautionary verses very much. This is the first time someone parted with a
possession to gift me. It's wonderful to feel worthy of that. Thanks
for the nice mangoes as well.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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Ishani and her mom were away at Nellore when Ishani's latest Parent-Teacher Meeting was held in mid-April at her Lily School. She was expected to graduate from LKG to UKG (if everything went well).
Ishani's father got cold feet at the last minute to face Ishani's twosome youthful lady teachers all by himself. For, Ishani was not altogether famous for her good behavior in her classroom. In her nursery class they had to change her section since she was found all the time gossiping with her friend in her mother tongue (Telugu) which her teachers didn't know. And they were upset.
So, my son asked me to accompany him to the dreaded P-T Meeting. And I got nervous. For the record, I never went to any P-T Meeting of my son while he was at KGP...either in his St Agnes School or KV later on...he too was not exactly an obedient kid. I sent his mom instead.
So I demurred and asked him why I should go when I am neither her parent nor her teacher. And he shot back that Ishani's two lady teachers know me better than they know him (it is I who fetch Ishani back from her school everyday and her teachers come out and hand her over to me...also they had come to recognize me as the author of the 5 famous 'Ishani Booklets').
I then recalled the Readers' Digest joke:
Didi: Chottoo, go and ask mom for a couple of cookies and bring them
Chottoo: Why should I go? You go. You are elder to me
Didi: But you are mom's favorite
Chottoo: But you have known her longer
Anyway we decided to go there early at 9 so that we would be the first sheep and the teachers would be fresh as daisies and in high spirits.
All went well and we were received warmly by the two ladies and seated and congratulated on the promotion of Ishani to UKG from LKG. We were handed her glorious report card and the two ladies were saying that they feel sorry that Ishani would no longer be there next year in their class and that they would be missing her badly. I was somewhat taken aback and asked the senior teacher:
"Is Ishani no longer naughty in her classroom?"
"Not exactly...she finishes her work early and starts chatting with her friend Varsha in Telugu which we don't understand"
"Don't you ask her not to?"
"I asked her to talk to her friend in English and she came back with the lame excuse: 'Varsha doesn't follow English that well' "
And the two teachers laughed uproariously.
Girls will be girls!
We then had to go to the Office to collect Ishani's new set of books (paying through our noses). And my son hid them high up in the almirah in my bedroom so that they are out of reach of Ishani, fearing that she would soil them even before the new session starts.
Ishani is now back here, and her school starts in ten days. And yesterday both her parents were away for 3 whole hours and I had to engage Ishani for all those many minutes and seconds. Both of us were playing all sorts of mind-games when Ishani started looking for a toy she had hid in my almirah and discovered her new set of books and brought them down getting up on a chair.
And was lost for all of half an hour thumbing her new books gingerly as if they were her newborn babies.
And I got lost in memories of my own school days and the arrival of the set of my new books with their piquant feel and smell.
Our school at Muthukur was not a rich convent school but just a government school without even pucca classrooms. But the first day at a new and higher class was always thrilling. New sheds, new books, and new teachers!
Our books were a bit shoddy even when new. The printers had this nasty trick of joining up two pages at their tops and sides and we had to shear them apart with our little fingers. And they got torn zigzag and it was a messy affair. And we had this trick of not writing our names on the first inside page of our books. We simply wrote:
"This book belongs to: 'See page 78' "
And on page 78 the legend would be:
"This book belongs to: 'See page 22' "
And it went on and on...till the frustrated guy would finally be asked to:
"Flip open the side edge of the book"
And when he did so, he would find:
"G. P. Sastry"
written in a hidden hand. For, we would flip open the side edge ourselves before writing our name across the entire flock of pages with a pen or pencil so that when the book is closed back, the name is not altogether visible unless is it flipped open back again.
Ishani has to now start reading words with 3 letters like cat, mat, rat... But of course she can recognize her name...pattern recognition.
Sometime back when I was browsing my copy of 'Thurber Carnival' gifted by Jogia, Ishani was sitting by my side and happened to watch the wordless story of Thurber's 'Bloodhound and the Bug'. And asked me to explain it to her. Which of course I did gleefully. And she was so impressed by the stark drawings of Thurber that once every 3 months she brings down that fat book from my book rack, opens the relevant page, and asks me to tell her that story again and again and again. Which I do with more and more variations each time. I had blogged it sometime ago:
And I am amazed that Thurber became favorite of a 3-year-old Telugu kid.
When I retired from KGP, I gave away all my physics books and kept only my few English paperbacks that I had bought in the 1960s and 70s. I was then a bachelor and paperbacks were very affordable. They are all with me now.
The other day Prof and Mrs P were kindly visiting us from KGP. Prof P had joined KGP as a young teacher in 2000, a few years before I left KGP. And we were attracted to each other by our tastes in Physics and English. His collection of books is hundreds of times larger and varied than mine.
We were expecting their daughter, T, also to visit us along with them but unfortunately she fell unwell at the last minute and couldn't make it. I first saw her when she was Ishani's age at the Tech Market in KGP. Now she is in her final years at the famous KV, IIT KGP. And she inherited her parents' love for English.
So I wanted to gift her a book (via her parents) from my old collection. I could have ordered one from Flipkart but somehow I wanted to pick one from my 1970s books, all of which are well-thumbed and had gone brown and brittle. And I zeroed in on Hilaire Belloc's 'Selected Cautionary Verses'.
It looked to me just the thing.
And I recalled that I had ordered it 40 years ago from Higginbothams at Madras along with a few other books like the 'Book of Bosh' by Edward Lear.
And before I packed it in a cloth-lined envelope, I read it once more and felt good.
And this is the heartwarming thanks-message I got from T:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
So, old books too are welcome as gifts...no need to fight shy of it...
...Posted by Ishani
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