Gurudakshina the invention of gold tree

Today we all are celebrating Teachers day. Everybody's status reflects so, even the naughtiest one in schools. Guru dakshina reminds me of Dronacharya,Parshuram and great sages.

I came across a very interesting story about Gurudakshina.

Raghav -The King somewhere in North India was believed to be one of the strongest kings of that times.He  was a great warrior and had won many states around his kingdom, extending to todays Pakisthan,Nepal and so on. Raghav- the ancestor of Lord Rama  wasn't only a good warrior but was known for his kindness. He would perform an yagya everytime he wins the war and gave away his alms to the people who ever approach.He was well known Suryawanshi and  known for his act of  kindness as well.

An old and poor kid Koustheya who wanted to learn and his guru was ready to teach accepting the fact that he would not be able to give him any gurudakshina.His teacher taught him best and once he completed his studies,Kaustheya asked his teacher what shall he give him as gurudakshina? His teacher tol dhim that he was aware that Koustheya is poor and would not be able to give him anything.Still Koustheya insisted and at some point his Guru got angry and out of anger he asked for Ten Lakh golds coins. 

Now Koustheya was puzzled as to how will he get them,He had no option. but then he has to give gurudakshina,as on his insisting his guru has asked for it.

Koustheya started his journey as he left the Gurus Ashram. He travelled down the thick forest thinking how he could get those 10 lakh gold coins. he was thinking whom can he approach so that he can get the coins. Suddenly he thought of King Raghu the only hope he had as King Raghu was known for his kindness.

he decided to approach King Raghu and share his problem with him. when he reached the kingdom gives of there was a Yagya being held by King Raghu that was the right time to approach as he knew that Raghu gives away all his alms after he wins the war. he approached the king and ask him to share 10 lakh gold coins to him as a Guru Dakshina to his teacher. Raghu had already given up all the alms and had nothing with him. he shared with Koustheiya that he has already been done with the donation part and has nothing left with him. but he would definitely love to help him.

He asked Koustheiya to wait for some days till he gets those10 lakh gold coins . Kaoustheya are believed Raghu. Here, Raghu was puzzled as 10 lakh gold coins was a big amount and none other than Kubera would be having it. there was no chance that Kuber would give him those coins on his request so he decided to have a war with him finally he approached with his Army to kubera's Kingdom.

Kuber had many spies around his country and boundaries, in no time he got an information that you had come down with his Army near the boundary of his country to attack him. he also came to know that the war was it is that of his wish to help Kaustheya. Kuber new Raghu was a very good Warrior and had a good Army if at all they have a war he would have lost. hence he decided to help Raghu with 10 lakh gold coins Raghu was resting under a Shami tree, Kuber with a magic spell around on the Shami tree made the leaves of gold. When you woke up in the morning he saw the tree of gold he understood that was Kubera who has tried to help him and now there was no reason for war Raghu happily asked his Army to collect 10 lakh gold coins from the Shami tree.

let me tell you Shami Tree at a very important role in the history of our culture remember when Pandavas went for agyatvas they had hide all their weapons on the Shami tree. Raghu handed over 10 lakh gold coins to Kaustheya. Costa was happy he received the 10 lakh gold coins and gave his Guru Dakshina to his teacher.

The Guru accepted the Guru Dakshina and blessed Kaustheya for good life and prosperity. he distributed the gold coins among the poor and needy. this is the same day that we celebrate as Dussehra where we distribute gold and considered very auspicious on this day one who cannot donate actual gold donates leaves as gold. letter on the same day Rama is believed to have defeated Ravana and the 10th day of this month came to be known as Vijaya Dashmi today people all over the country celebrate Vijaya Dashmi on this day the tree leaves are kept in a box and distributed to friends and relatives people touching the feet of their elders and say please accept this leaves and bless us so that we prosper in our lives

Online study parents orientation meet invite

Early morning I received an online study introduction meeting invite. Of course, it was a zoom meeting as social distancing is a must. Children are cute but the parents of kinder garden students are cuter. I was so amused by the experience of online orientation. The meeting was to be held the next day and the link was sent on the group. After so many days almost three months, the group discussions made sense. 

Our Nursery C group had almost all mothers and a few fathers to have gender equality. The meeting was going to start at 11.00 am. The orientation was done on Sunday considering the working parents in the group. The head of the school along with subject teachers was going to be part of the meeting. Now that the meet is over I would love to share the amusement. 

I told the parents were so cute and so excited like their kids that they gave a different benchmark to my amusement. The variety of parents in the meet was hilarious and was taking over my funny bones. Let me take you thru my amusement experience. 

1. Anxiety parents:  They suddenly wake up to their thoughts and rush to watts app or other groups to get the link for meeting and rush to the meeting without any idea or study, say homework on the topic. 

2. Confused parents: These parents are not sure about the sessions so they get along their kids too to peep in the small screen. In spite of mentioning that the orientation is only for parents. They also ensure that their children say a loud greeting to the teacher. In addition to their confusion they confuse other parents to include kids. Adding on this other parents call up their kids to see their teachers and meet friends on screen.

 

3. Ideal Parents: They are ready before ten minutes on their screens with a good smiling appearance and are well dressed. They ensure their children and speaker both are on mute. In some cases, both parents attend the meeting showing their enthusiasm and interest.  

4. Party parents: These Parents are dressed so well that they get easily noticed and seem like having an online party. They ensure their friends see whatever they flaunt. 

5. Ignorant parents: Parents who completely ignore the background dancing and shouting yelling and crying kids. At times vice versa kids attending session sitting idle in front of the camera with parents hovering around in the background. 

6. Magical parents: They appear and vanish with connectivity issues and struggle to try out the session. They end up understanding nothing and reach watts app group for help. 

7.Conscious parents: These parents actually create a zoom corner in their house wherein they have various online interactions. They ensure the best possible view of their place may be study room or so. 

8. Shabby parents: Parents who have failed control over and around them, lying on the bed along with pillow and blankets rolled each other. These parents do not see the mirror before joining the meet and get surprised with others' looks and take small breaks from the screen, keeping it blank and towards the untidy bed.At times not worried showing the camera facing different parts of the body than face. 

9. Career oriented parents: These parents know everything syllabus of junior kg to carrier option for kids. They are worried about child development. Their child is always ahead of time and learning. They will have development-related questions at the end of the session.

10. Worried parents: These parents are very worried about their children they do not act on anything apart from scaring away the kid with the teacher’s name. They ensure they continue doing it by asking questions at the end of the session which is not related to the discussion done. Like he doesn’t have milk and food on his own!! He wants to play with mobile the whole day seeking the solution from the teacher. 

11. Thanksgiving parents: These parents will praise the teacher no matter what just to be in good books. They ensure they keep thanking the teacher. They will give entire credit for everything happening with their kid to the teacher even though they are been in lockdown for the last few months. 

12. Silent Parents: They log in time with the mute speakers. They listen to take notes if necessary. Ask relevant queries. Are quietly sorted and relaxed. They do not ask any unnecessary questions and not interested in anything other than the relevant topics.

13. Enthusiastic parent:  This parent is the watts app admin. She will take notes and paste the summary of the group post-session. She will also call for a meeting on the watts app for the understanding of those who couldn't attend the meeting. 

It was not different than the introductory meeting of the session before even children went to school last year.  When the principal told it’s your choice to select the menu for tiffin, only ensure that your child should eat. 

To which 

Parents no 1 asked can I send Non-veg? 

The parent no 2 my child is fond of wafers and chips only can I? 

Third said my child can eat anything with ketchup, so can I send ketup every day....

Never-ending queries. 

Alas…..child has grown to one grade but parents didn’t .....they have the same irrelevant queries.

Thanks to the teachers and principal for patience with grown-up kids. 

World through those tiny eyes...

Baba is not going to court for some days and mummy is also relaxed. She sleeps till late, there is no cooking hurry. There is no school. And everybody is at home but in their house. 

I have many friends in school and in my society. Daksha, Shuddhi, and Krishna are my best friends. Mummy says Dakshu and Shuddhi are elder to me, but as I am as tall as Dakshu is. I study in Nursery. I love my teacher but mummy says she is dumb. Maybe, because mummy wants her to speak in English in class, but she Hindi also. Now Krishna has gone to her grandparents. So I Dakshu and Shuddhi play every day.

Mummy did not allow me to go out of the house for one month. One month I played with mummy and baba. We had so much fun. We enjoyed so many new toys. Mummy and papa also played with me. I have so many new games. The treasure hunt is my favorite because I get some surprise gifts at the end of the game. Peppa pig gets gold coin chocolates. I have asked mummy to get me those coins.

I have a big house very very big such that we three can sit in it. I have a cooking set also, I cook for my toys. My dolls love my food, especially omelet. I have two more houses, one is a small house very very small, the tiny dolls stay in it another is a piggy bank. Piggybank doesn’t look like a piggy, it has animals on it. It has a tiger and elephant on it. Now I know tigers are stripped and leopard spots on it. I take all my dolls to play with me, I teach them. I am their teacher.

No one is coming out big virus corona has come. People feel ill if it catches them. My papa is a secretary and he works with Ganesh's uncle and his friends. They keep on telling everybody to avoid going out. But no one listens; I listen to my mom and dad. My society residents are going crazy to go out. Every day papa explains one person why we should not go out. 

Papa wears a mask every day, he got one mask for me also. When I wear masks no one recognizes me. I love my new mask. I have two colorful scarfs also. I have a small scarf for my baby doll also.

Mummy says it’s important to wash everything you buy from the market. She has asked me to wash hands frequently. I love my new hand wash, instead of washing hands I love making bubbles. Papa got me a new tiny hand sanitizer. He says using it will kill all bacteria and germs on my hand. I brush my teeth every day; papa says brushing regularly will kill the germs in my mouth. I brush twice a day; mummy says if I don’t brush twice my teeth would turn brown and black like one of my friends Manav. He has brown teeth. I have white teeth.

Mummy keeps running from one room to another, she says she is exercising. Baba also does exercise but we do it in one room. I also have dumbbells like baba. His dumbbells are very heavy. Mine is also heavy but I am very strong to pick them up. 

Nowadays papa helps Mumma a lot in her work, they are best friends like me and Daksha.Our kamwali aaji us not coming due to Corona. 

I and Dakshu love to dance. We have divided the song between both of us. We loved dancing in the rain also. We danced in the rain yesterday. I enjoyed dancing in rain but as the result of I had to drink yellow milk, mummy says turmeric is good for health. I will not get a cough and cold.

We have tied a bag with a long string in our balcony so that we don’t go out. Milkman puts milk packet in that bag and I love pulling it up. Today Ganesh uncle gave me chocolate in that bag.

Baba has grown a big beard. Mummy says it looks nice. Grandma doesn’t like it much. I also do not like. There is no place for me to kiss on his cheeks. I kiss his forehead for a good night.

Mummy and Papa keep doing some work on a laptop and they tell me they are studying. Its holidays but mummy makes me study every day. I miss my school but mummy says it is going to take time to reopen schools. They watch news early morning and become every serious. Then I put on my cartoon show. I love Masha and the Bear, Peppa pig, Fukrey kids, Ninja Hatori, and Puppy pals.

It is fun to be at home but I miss going to the garden . I miss all my friends from school. We do not to watch movies on the big screens now. I want to go out, but Mummy Papa also does not go out at all. So I need to be a good girl and stay at home. 

Our new normal..

Change is the only a constant thing in our life. We change, adjust with the culture and as per surroundings we live in. Our food habits, our clothes, depends on the climatic condition, we wear Woolen in winter and cotton in summer. Circumstances change us as a human; we adapt the new lifestyle by accepting the change and doing necessary changes in our day-to-day habits. Human is also one of the animals on earth. We call ourselves developed, or advanced as we not only change but also adopt new things in life. 

As we all know shortly we all will be free to move around after two months or more. I am thinking about something beyond today and tomorrow. It is for sure that this pandemic will try our patience throughout the year. Let us understand this better and make life easier. New change in day to day life awaits us, for acceptance and following it with urge to overcome the hurdles of illness and pain and deaths around us. 

Daily activities may start like earlier but in some different way. Schools, college will function but from home that is Online studies. Corporate will function from home. There would be lesser traffic on road compared to the one before two months. 

But there is big list of things we will have to add in our daily routine and include in our day-to-day habits. 

We have heard a story Gulliver and Lilliput, remember the small tiny people Lilliput’s and the big huge Gulliver. I could not find anything better to compare or suggest for our future. Lockdown is called off in green zones but orange and red is going to take time, how much no one knows. Things are getting worse day by day, because of humans' negligence and misuse of freedom and opportunities given. Yes even now, I mean those big lines to buy liquor. Anyways this is not our today’s topic. Our topic is life is going to change from Gulliver to Lilliput.

Human has misused everything to extend from Gulliver to Lilliput. A grand big party for a one-year-old kid’s birthday is going to be like a real birthday now. Grand wedding celebrations inviting around a thousand people and a hundred variety of food are going to limit to maybe fifty with lesser food wastage. Weekend parties, visit to malls and movies, etc is going to be replaced by family lunch. It will be a totally different life, changed life that we will actually live. Holidays will be holidays and no more limited to shopping and Mall visits as Malls will be closed. If you meet any of your friends, you won't get the handshake or hug; it will be waving of hands, just a hi. We will have to see that we completely avoid it and join Indian culture by joining hands together saying ‘Namaste’.

While traveling, you will have companions, but no one will share your seat, or peep in your phone. You will be provided marks everywhere to stand on and be seated in metros and buses like we were given when we were in kinder garden, told by our teachers to stand on the mark.

It will be difficult to identify your friends as their face would be covered with masks. You may at times feel like attending the P. T class in school where you were asked to keep one hand gap in two people. Every entry and exit will be providing you hand sanitizers and sprays.

Welcome the new life with changes, but ensure you follow the 'MUST' things. Ensure the compliance to hygienic life, there may be no chance for error correction. The catch is the virus is spreading by touch and by cough and sneezing. The symptoms start with fever and throat infection. We need to stay away from anything that would cause throat infection and increase our immunity to avoid fever. If we take care of these basic rules we will definitely serve this pandemic. 

So Let’s see how our future is going to be, actually it’s going to be more of B2B… Back to basics, being more careful while following the class's first teachings. We will have to bring the good habits back which we have forgotten somewhere and miss at times due to other priorities of work. Hence, forth our priority has to be maintaining hygiene without any excuse. 

 Wash hand after regular intervals.

 Sanitize everything that you buy from the market...

 Avoid going to crowded places

 Avoid any family get together, function or events

 Remember to wash your hand before meals. 

 Cover your mouth with hanker chief when u cough or sneeze. 

 Always cover the food 

 Exercise daily

 Eat wholesome, fresh, and healthy food

Ensure you don't travel across unnecessary. Do not plan any event for the next year or two. If at all you are planning see that you do not make it a grand event, limit the list to few invites, or even avoid. Do not plan any outing a trip, picnic for next year.

The vaccine will be discovered but it will take more than a year to cover each and every person on earth. It's not going to be easy, our next year or more is going to be around the coronavirus. You will have to ensure you have good immunity so that you can serve this pandemic. You will have to be family person and will have to possibly stay at home. Plan more activities from home and avoid going out frequently or unnecessary.

It’s going to be tough but tough gets going…so practice. Try to make a schedule of shopping only needy things. This year’s all functions, festivals, and religious events are going to be on a smaller scale or even can be held back. The best example today stands at the GSB Ganapati festival which is postponed. 

You will have to behave that seriously like you behaved at the very beginning of the pandemic. 

Ensure 

 Only one person goes out of the house for household work, 

 Wash the used clothes immediately or keep them in sunlight for some hours, the same thing applies to anything that you buy. 

 For the next one year, you cannot add the grocery direct to your shelves, without exploring it to sanitizer’s sprays, sunlight, or detergent wash.

 To add on protective tools you will have to use full sleeves, along with hand gloves, scarf or masks, etc.

If at all anyone gets infection have empathy, support the person, and give him the willpower and hope to overcome the situation. Please mind that the recovery rate is good as compared to deaths. 

This is something we need to do for individuals, but what about our duty towards the nation. We are going to fall short of something like blood, beds in hospitals, sanitizers, and face masks. Food provisions, grocery, milk provisions, medicines. See how can we contribute. Contribute to National cleanliness by not spitting on roads.

As schools will start we will need books, why not have second-hand books as we do not know if due to lockdown the books are printed or not. Maybe our books can help some poor or just a needy who is unable to go out or unable to buy them.

It was a critical time, businesses have closed, people have lost jobs and the economy is at its lowest. Let us encourage and help people find the right jobs, direct them to the right path, help People fight depression. Things will take time to fall in place but we will have to show the strength and spirit. 

Some of you may come with suggestions, then why call off the lockdown, let it continue for a month or more. Guys, you must have heard of economic crises, we are not doing well economically. People do not have money, they have lost jobs, they have migrated back to their states, maids, drivers all are suffering. Government can't help everybody directly, we will have to take initiative and help people around us. 

One more important thing to consider while we were in lockdown we were served by people like doctors, milkman, sweeper, watchman, police whom we have always taken for granted. Respect and make peace with such professions. Do not forget to appreciate them.

We have lost much more than we thought but our steps to control the spread and serve the pandemic calls for applause for all of us. We may never have such a situation in the future, but serving one more year or two with courage is something we all should look forward to.

Challenge online study

It’s the first-ever longest lockdown in India. While we are struggling to adjust to the changes coming our way, I feel like a juggler managing and balancing all the tasks, properties with equal attention. It’s the month of May and Academic New Year peeps around the corner. We do not yet have a clear idea of how it’s going to be. Central board schools have already started their webinars, video calls, etc. Some schools have started sending the videos to parents so that they get the task /studies completed from their children. Before we conclude if it’s a good way or a better way of studying, let us understand it’s the need of this hour. There is no other option left than online studies.

This is the system applied to all age groups starting from kinder garden to secondary classes. Incorporates we always practiced webinars and video conferencing but never thought it would be a method of child studies also. We always struggled to keep children away from the magnetic gadget life but seems we will have to stop now as that’s the only tool left. After cursing the invention of gadgets at times now we welcome it and hand over the same to kids.

This is going to be difficult, for students, as well as teachers. Both are used to study face to face or say in person, which cannot be replaced by any other method. Earlier the place was different like classes were conducted in open, which are conducted in closed shed premises called schools.  

Well, we already had some experience in online studies like the cd’s materials available online for various courses. Many new online learning and teaching platforms are available. That’s the boon for working professionals who wish to upgrade or learn as well as for them who would like to teach and share their knowledge. It’s also a new source of income.

Online study has its own advantage and disadvantages.

It is government norms for online education that a parent should be sitting along with the kids till class four. It will take time for children to get over and understand this new method of learning. Apart from education schools is all about friends and other activities like sports etc. The online study would be skipping this for the moment.

Some students are slow learners and take time to understand; at times they need special attention or repetitive explanation. Here parents would come in the picture to make the child understand the concept.

There would less or no more bunking.

Parents with two kids, attending online classes at the same time would be a problematic situation or unavailability of resources like gadget or network issue may be a hindrance in the flow of study. Continuity may also suffer.

I had a brief discussion on this with some of my friends, especially some who are teachers, tutors, and parents to understand their views and errors they are facing. If any of you are facing the problem mentioned in the above point, please talk to the schools or teachers they can provide you the link to the specific lecture, wherein you can review it for better understanding.

Teachers are also finding the system short as they are also used to connect with the children, the responses and the face reading would have limitations. Our teachers could easily make out if the student understood the concept or not by looking at their faces. There were chances of re explanation when taught face to face.

Also, did we realize that’s its much testing time for them, they know they are being watched by not only students but parents beside them? This makes their job more difficult. No matter how skilled a doctor you are conducting surgery on your loved one is always a challenge, it’s always a challenge if someone is judging you based on your performance.

The total onus of studies lies more on students than anyone else. Here we are talking about primary kids (Jkg to 4th), as working professionals or secondary kids can find it a bit easy.

We had everything earlier like some online apps like Vedanta, byju’s, but in order to keep our children away from gadgets, we never surfed them, now its time to know more about such sites.

I had earlier shared in one of my blogs (https://meshirish.blogspot.com/2020/05/children-and-internet-safety.html) about the care to be taken when your child is studying online where he has the chance to explore and know anything and everything.

We will have to be extra careful and take this mode of study in ease. Children may enjoy or just may get frustrated with the online studies as they do not move out meet their friends, share Tiffin’s, and have fun which they actually have in school. It will be our duty to make them understand the situation the world is going through.

This is a matter of a year or so, but accepting the challenge and making changes in lifestyle for betterment is a must. As change is the only constant…..

(A word of concern: We are not aware of the book stores have books as due to lockdown the print industry was also closed. Let us share our books with someone who is unable to reach out to the stores or is unable to buy them due to the unavailability of money. Use second-hand books)