Thought of the Day:
Exams give me mental paralysis.

With all the Rock and metallica and Pink Floyd, I had almost forgotten my most precious collection..The ABBA...I am listening to one of my most favorite ABBA songs as I write this post and I have no other proof to show how much I still like to listen to ABBA.

'I have a Dream' is perhaps my most favorite ABBA songs. Its a long time since anything non PF or rock has given me goose pimples. Its sung in chorus, the whole song and everything is so beautifully synchronized, the effect is like the whole world singing it around you. And the lyrics are nowhere near extraordinary, just simple teachings of life...like someone fixing you a drink of hope...here is a stanza from the song..

I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
Ill cross the stream - I have a dream
Ill cross the stream - I have a dream

(http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/abba/i+have+a+dream_20002830.html)

Found these on http://www.stanford.edu/~dua/files/quotes.html
Too good.. Here are some of my personal favorites

Human beings were created by water to transport it uphill

Your lucky number is 3552664958674928. Watch for it everywhere.

The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I will walk carefully -- Russian Proverb

Preudhomme's Law of Window Cleaning: It's on the other side.

There once was an old man from Esser,
Who's knowledge grew lesser and lesser.
It at last grew so small,
He knew nothing at all,
And now he's a College Professor.

I can't understand it. I can't even understand the people who can understand it -- Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped

Art Attack....

For the ones who actually read my blog, I do not want to sound like I have all the time in the world and write blogs all the time, this had been long time I wanted to write this one but never had time. I am a great fan of a show that airs on Disney Channel. Its called art attack, hosted by Neil Buchanan. (http://www.hitentertainment.com/artattack/). Neil, in this show presents some really cool craft for kids to make themselves and enjoy their holidays. You can find most of them on the site above. I didn't actually try one of his toys but I must say I must have really got inspired by him.

I was watching a (completely different) series the other day and one of the scenes showed a room with many paintings on the wall. I like the concept of one of them and tried to imitate it, the the exact 'Art Attack' way, with whatever supply of water colors I had. I am not a great artist either so my painting looks like this. Which proves that I haven't forgotten to paint and that I still paint like I did in third standard which was the last time I painted.

(I like to call this painting Horizon, in like to think about it in this way, when kids play the boundary of the sky and land disappear. They hop, skip, jump like there is no depth which can hurt them. The same coloring on the background for land and sky represents the infinite area of the playground playground the children see)

The concept is pretty cool, first paint the back ground with an one color or a combination of more than one color(recommended), when the paint dries sketch whatever you like with a black sketch pen or black paint, whatever you prefer and you have a painting as good as a professional (of course you don't get that idea from the one above, but i know if I can do this you can make a better one). I will try improving on it and hopefully upload a new and better version of this.

Visit to an Exhibition

Thane Municipal corp has arranged an exhibition of plants at gaondevi maidan. This sunday I had an opportunity to pay a visit and now i guess this is definitely a thing on my 'what to do on weekends' list.
The exhibition had a display of various rare and common plants, flowers, bonsais and also miniature landscapes. The best according to me were the miniature landscapes made in those flat earthen pots. Also the pipal and the banyan bonsais were a sight to watch.
The pandal was divided into various rows each row for a different variety or a different display. So there was the first two rows were for the collection of rare plants, the second for home grown vegetables and so on. Though I can't remember which row was which, I remember there was a row for cactus, one for bonsais, one for flower arrangements, one for kitchen garden then other for hanging plants and so on. I also managed to collect the names of certain plants I had never heard before.
There was calendula- It is the pot marigold native to Mediterranean.
a variety of plants of the genus bromelia, which is a native to torpical America. Pineapple belongs to this category.
And a are category of succulent plants.

And I also finally know what a petunia looks like!!! :) (Though it grows in my college I never knew it was petunia).

A new project

I really do no write well and I do not have a good opening for this post, so I will directly start writing about the recent project I am involved in, teaching "English speaking" skills scientifically to a couple of students, whose mother tongue is Marathi. I was always into teaching and I like to think teaching actually helps to gain and retain more knowledge than reading and writing can. Here is a small summary of the project.
(note: In the following article "we" refers to me and my colleague, classmate and good friend Birinder Singh who is equally but more passionately involved in this project.)

New English school, Mand is one of the few high schools in Mand village near Hinjewadi, Pune.
Much unlike its name, this school is not a English medium school, but a Marathi medium school. There is not specific reason we selected this school as the lab of our first experiment. We wanted to keep our first project a simple experiment, the reasons being we weren't sure of the response from the management of the school and also about the success rate or our own future plans. However taking a plunge was exactly what was needed at that point of time.
Management didn't prove to be a hurdle as I had expected. The headmaster was the first person we interacted with and he gave us all information as needed. We did have to cajole him to give us at least three slots a week with a couple of students.
So we selected a sample of twenty students from standard eight. This was the first prototype for us. First two session were learning sessions for us more than the students, we needed to know their problem areas before even thinking of teaching.

We must have done a couple of sessions now and we see lots of students enthusiastic students ready to learn. What they lack is perhaps right guidance. Also I personally feel that vocabulary is not a huge hurdle as many people think it is. It is the sentence construction. We are currently working on the same area.
I will write more about the sessions later....