Resplendent is our night sky!

Yesterday evening, I was in Bugis area. The sky was already dark and my attention shifted to this newly built tall building. I was attracted by its lights glowing in the night sky. The designs were very different from the usual night lights from other buildings. It was opulent and I stood there watching the lights in awe. 

But slowly, a train of thoughts emerged on how much of energy would be consumed in this process, if it is burning the whole night, for 365 nights per year, and for so many years- I started getting paranoid about how cruel we were behaving towards Mother Earth.  The side effect of burning lights, even if they are the efficient types is the heat that it generates. Eventually, even if the type of bulb used is highly efficient and produces the least amount of carbon footprint, it still contributes to global warming that is indelible. 

All these skyscrapers along the river, in CBD that are lighted against the dark skies are not merely tourist attractions, but they are iconic of the country's economy, infrastructure and its pride. The more people want to view it, the more decorative- in other terms, more light bulbs are burnt - more energy consumed- contributing more to global warming.



Image of Earth @ Night.

Source: NASA, 27th November 2000

The image of some parts of the earth at night, is just as it might appear during day time. 

Apart from global warming being a major worry, there are other 
issues that are equally disturbing. When was it that you last saw a pristine night sky with the stellar constellations? I would rather get convinced thinking that our kids and future generation will only view the Andromeda and Orion through their digital tabs and virtual skies than the REAL night sky. Yet another concern is that these lights cause confusion amidst nocturnal creatures that use natural moonlight and starlight as cues for migration. Large skyscrapers with artificial illumination have drastically changed nocturnal ecology- like hindering the hatching of sea turtles, confusing the food web of predators of night sky and so on.    

Many countries these days consider this a mandatory trend to follow- light up the night sky. I personally believe that it acts as a tourist attraction that increases the influx of the tourists. For instance, the laser light show is run every night. The production needs 15 high power lasers, 30 high power searchlights, 9 high definition video projectors, half a million watts of light, 250,000 LED lights. From the incandescent to the CFL and now to LED light bulbs, the change has surely been for the good, yet the burning of 250,000 LED lights on a routine basis, that too twice everyday- I think is a bit too much that we have asked for. 

Too much of commercialization has eventually demanded mankind to take as much as they can from Mother Earth. In this process, we have forgotten to give back to nature adequately, that we have already witnessed her acrimony by way of natural disasters. As simple as- how many trees are planted for every tree that is cut? How many of these man- made infrastructure has replaced the green nature of Mother Earth. I believe that it is time for us to stop and think, before we deplore our actions. Let us start at home, let us save ENERGY and do our little part in giving back to Mother Earth by growing plants at home. Also, REDUCE-REUSE-RECYCLE. 

As an individual I can hope for a better world, hope for more number of Earth days than just one per year, hope for lesser number of bulbs to be burned by commercial service providers/ organizations during nights, hope for laser light shows to be run less frequently, hope for nocturnal ecology not to be disturbed, hope for Mother Earth to be safe. 

Happy Teacher's Day!!Behind the scenes

Loads of wishes from deep down my heart, to all teachers who have done the best in their capacity and some even going beyond that to make better people.

For the past few days there has been many beautiful videos trending online, expressing how teachers have made their students better pupils academically and how they have contributed in making their lives better as they have gotten into good careers. Also, the movie Chalk N Duster was telecasted on Vasantham(Singapore's Media Corp. Indian Channel)  in celebration of teachers. I watched the movie and was so reminded of all my teachers.

My mom - my first teacher. She is also a teacher by profession and worked for s semi-government school in The Nilgiris as science/home science teacher for 33 years. She has now retired from her job, but the teacher in her is always interactive and I believe that this is what the profession does to the person. The 'Chalk N Duster'  is a reflection of my mom, what she went through while I was in school. I could not help but think of all the trouble my mom went through to give me and my brother the best. Of course, my dad played an equal role too. The scenes from the movie re-winded a couple of decades down memory lane. Today I appreciate their efforts and I want to say a big THANK YOU to mom & dad- my teachers.

My high school teachers have a great role in having made me who I am today....a teacher by profession. I believe and hope that I have not failed in making them proud. Thank you dear Ms. Indu Ananthachary, Mrs. Chandra Sunder, Mrs. Nalini, Mrs. Benteley, Mrs. Poonam, Mrs. Hyacinth Senior, Mrs. Hyacinth Junior, Mrs. Anitha, Mrs. Usha, Mrs. Beena, Mrs. Jalu, Mrs. Shobana, Ms. Aisha, Mrs. Nirmala, Mrs. Poornima, Sr. Pereira, Sr. Annamma, Sr. Rose, Sr. Hazel. Apologies if I had missed any names.

Teachers are role models, teachers are our mentors, philosophers and knowledge providers. They also teach us values and mold us to become better human beings. My high school and higher secondary school teachers have played a huge role in it. I still remember....during my twelfth-board exams, my mom was sick and had to be admitted in the hospital in Coimbatore for nearly a month for a major ops. I had to stay put in Ooty, to deliver exams. Quite often I used to be upset and worried for mom. But Mrs. Meera, Mrs. Jemima- my standard 12 science teachers,made sure to talk to me everyday and checked on me to see if I studied for exams. They encouraged me and made sure that I was alright. When times were tough and I lacked the confidence to face it, there definitely was a teacher to encourage me and assure me that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

Teaching is a noble profession and quite enjoyable too if you have the passion. That does not mean that teachers do not face difficulties. Just like any other profession, here too there are many ups and downs. At times we feel demoralized, we feel put down, exhausted, compared, thrown to rock bottom on a task....and so on. But nevertheless, when the going gets tough.....teachers get going!!

Our family, students and employers are our strength that keeps us going and making our monotonous life exciting. I thank them for making me realize the worth of the teacher in me.

To all my fellow colleagues and fraternity, I wish every one a HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY.

Students of tomorrow

It is a bit of a bother, however it does not seem to be receiving  enough attention from society at the moment.

I wanted to share my thoughts on the character and nature of student cohorts that we are teaching these days.  Students have always played a big role in invigorating the passion that I have towards my job as a lecturer. Lecture topics may be tough to teach, there have been other challenges I have faced in the delivery of the lesson. But just the sheer presence of the students and the exchange of greetings with them to start with rekindles the interest in the job and gives the instant energy to gallop a thousand miles right away.

However, lately it does not feel that way, the moment I enter this particular class, I feel like I have just completed the 1000 miles and am tired to do anything else.

The nature of students is as such that I have even thought of skipping a lecture and just giving them some written work to do.  They totally lack motivation, do not care for anything in life, do not respect the system, come late for lectures, talk to their friends during lecture time and so on. I have tried friendly type of classroom management. I believe that by building rapport, we will be able to achieve the learning outcomes easily. But it did not work. Then I tried being strict, that too does not. While in discussion with my peers and friends about this issue,  it became clear that many classes have these type of students. So on a deeper level, if we were to think of this more critically, it is the value system that these kids are from that has landed them as to what they are today. Most kids are single child for parents, and parents who pet them at younger ages without inculcating values, are now not able to solve the problems that these kids create back at home. Hence they spend a lot of money to drive them to foreign countries for education. They are absolutely spoiled for choice and do not realize the worth that an educational certificate can provide them when in need. I have seen many students just stuck to their mobile phones as though it is part of their anatomy.  It is one major culprit - the phone has become smart and made its users idiots.

It is common to find students at the  Foundation levels of Tertiary Education not inclined too well academically. As educators we totally understand and accept them. We contribute as much as we can in their cognitive development and also character molding. But at the tertiary level, their character is already built, by the value system created by parents at home where most of the early years of childhood is spent. So we face some  'I do not want to change', 'I am lazy to change',  'I don't care, as I have everything in life', type of students in class and sometimes talking to them is like hitting a wall.

Some students coming to Singapore from foreign countries have difficulties in coping with not only the education system, but also a new environment. Their parents are not nearby to guide them, they are totally dependent on themselves, a few are lucky to have good guardians. These students find it difficult to focus in studies. Eventually, they bunk classes, they miss out on lectures and when returning to class the next day, they are in a trance as they don't understand.

The 'I don't care' type of students can come to lectures, without a book. Oh!!  even that can be tolerated, they don't care to even carry a pen with them. They show no interest to learn.

Lack of English proficiency is a major hurdle in their learning process. And the best part is that there is a large percent of student population who possess the same character.  As an academician, I have tried my best to talk them into setting a goal in life, but in vain. The starting point was in trying to make the classes more interesting by understanding their learning needs. This is when the stress for the educator builds up. The harsh reality is that, in a stipulated period of time, concepts and definitions of topics from Management or any other subject area has to be taught to them, who are either weak in English, or do not know the language at all(don't be surprised). If the learner shows even a wee bit of interest, we can pick up on that, otherwise I bet it is a Himalayan task.

I do not want to talk of entry requirements and eligibility criterion of these students, that is a whole new topic. The institution also plays a major role in reinforcing the value systems. But sadly, many private institutions are more keen on the business perspective. I feel pathetic about these young adults and the society that will be served by them tomorrow. Of course there are many of them who are wonderful and doing a great job. But my concern is that this 'lackluster' group of teenagers are increasing in number. There is some basic error in their value system and parents are failing to see that. If these students were to take on the workforce tomorrow, what will be the economy of the country like? Quite a worry!!

Random thoughts....but worth thinking!!

After quite a bit of thinking, I decided that I will go on and write what I had in mind about this particular issue. Here is what prompted me to write......

There have been these Facebook posts written by a friend (on Facebook everyone we call friend, coz there is just this classification-friends, correct me if I am wrong) popping on my wall consistently. I believe that there may be many people who might do that.  Such posts are sometimes mildly taunting of the fact that they are  unhappy in the workplace, or with their peers or superiors.  If they happen to write such posts just few times, or on rare occasions, then it is understandable that they are really upset and just needed to post it for the sake of relieving their stress. But if it is posted on a daily basis, there must be seriously something wrong- either with the workplace and colleagues or with the person who posts it as such.

If we were to look at it a little beyond the surface level, the person complaining about their peers and colleagues as she/he deems them unfit, must be going through a tough time. But if you critically examine the situation, may be those whom you have been complaining about too think the same way, but are just being tolerant about it. They have not taken to posting on Facebook to express what they feel about you.

On another note, may be it is time for her/him to quit, if they continuously feel the pressure, that they post almost everyday, or in a pattern like every Monday and Wednesday ;-) . Ranting and trolling on social media might help in getting a few comments from people who are well wishers, and really may give some sincere advice. But if this is a continued practice, then people may want to think that there could be some issues with the person posting. In my opinion, I feel that these posts are indicative of hypo-criticism, where the posts are about people and workplace with whom we talk to everyday, communicate with a smiling face everyday and glad and happy that our pay cheque arrive on time or even before that.  But the inner conscience hates them to the effect these posts keep popping up to the others who may really want to think of the workplace and their colleagues as villainous in nature.

Should they rethink...or call it quits!?

Will never ever buy from the neighborhood market vegetable grocer!

Oh....How I missed writing. 

Back to the bytes...just wanted to rant a bit, but may be it is not ranting after all!!

I was at the local wet market yesterday. I never buy my vegetables from the grocer in the neighborhood market.....being the Indian that I am. I always buy it from Komalas in Little India or from Mustafa. Komalas is much more convenient because, we(my hubby and I)  just park the bike in front and quickly grab the vegetables and groceries we need and ride back with less stress. I like Komalas for one more reason, that they give us an itemized bill for the purchase, which many other shops along Buffalo road dont provide. They charge you for an elephant, when you have just bought a horse without an itemised bill( like yaana vela in tamil...lolz!!).

For most vegetables, Fairprice NTUC is a great place. This weekend the tomatoes were running out in NTUC!! Left with no other choice I had to shop from the local vegetable grocer in the wet market. I  have always had this in my mind...wanted to write it to see if other Indians also felt the same. I am sure Russel Peters does (where are the emoticons like in Whatsapp....btw can we blog on Whatsapp??!!). 

Back to the story.......this aunty who was in the "measure and charge" customers counter, was unhappy first, because she thought I was unable to pay....charged me  SGD 4.00. Of course I was like WHAT????  But maintained a cool expression.  She did not tell me the measurement, and I could not see it, because the scale was out of customers' view. I asked her what was the weight she measured. This much rights I had,to ask for how much it weighed. And here we go again, this time she really was upset with me. She just said "four dollars", then mumbled something  showing irritation on her face.  I paid the amount and walked back, disappointed by the way that woman behaved. This is not the first time, every time they behave very harshly to Indians, as though we cant afford to pay. The fish vendor is also like that, in fact he is worse. The fruits vendors are like that as well. 

Whatever may be my purchasing power, what makes them think that we cant afford their prices....do they even know that we are the largest consumers of tomatoes,,hehe....I wont go back there, never ever!! 

If there is anyone who feels the same way, leave your comments and also tell me what do you in such a situation. 

Heaven Live!

It is all about a little time I got all for myself for spending it with the most loved people on earth- when mom and dad were with me. Believe me, staying with mom and dad all your life is a blessing that not all of us get. For the past nine years I have been visiting mom and dad in India only for short periods of time. Two months maximum. Even that has become a rarity for the past couple of years. Now kids having grown up, and going to school we have to wait for the time when we get holidays at the same time, going back to India and to stay there for many days has become difficult.

After I finished my standard twelve, I moved out of Ooty to do my Bachelor degree. I could go home to parents, only for vacations in between semesters.  Those days to stay in a hostel during study was really exciting, yet when it was time to go home for a weekend, the whole week used to pass by with me so restless and looking forward for the time to take the bus back home. Then again another three years of Master study in Madurai. Travelling from Madurai to Ooty  was really hectic and tedious. It used to take me nine hours to reach home. But when I was to leave for home- the tediousness never did any harm- coz at the end of the journey, I was in heaven- my mom and dad's smiling faces brought so much bliss.

But this time I parted them to go a longer distance. As soon as I got married at the age of 23 I moved miles away following my husband as is Indian tradition- taking the girl away from her parents. Getting accustomed to new ways of life, new family- is all but a journey in everyone's life. So was mine. Thanks to God Almighty so far the journey has been a blessed one. It has been 9 years complete since I moved out of my mom and dad's home to one of my own. The suffering of staying away from the woman who carried me in her womb, has lessened these past few years, because now we are busy with our own kids and family, whom  we have to take care of. Yet there was always this craving to eat mom's food, sleep on mom's lap, missing out times when dad gave me a long lecture, walking with dad to the market ......so many of them!!

After requesting mom and dad to visit me in Singapore and to come and see me here in my home, to get a glimpse of how I take care of my kids and family, they finally did make it here. Again thanks to God Almighty, he has fulfilled my long time wish. And I should say(i believe) that they had a wonderful time here. One month just flew past like nobody's business. And the day came when they had to return to India. My kids, my hubby and I miss them so much now, we are waiting for the time to be back with them again.

Love you mom and dad!

Should I or Should I Not?

All working mothers go through this mental struggle, whether to stop work and stay with their kids- we can never get enough of our kids growing up time!

Lately I have been thinking about this too often. One major reason why I think so is the timing of work. My work timing is from 9.30am to 7.00pm.So when I leave work at 7.00pm, I reach home in approximately  an hours time  The commutation system in Singapore is so reliable, that I can reach home in 45 minutes. Yet by the time I reach home, it is 7.50pm or sometimes later due to minor jobs at work place. This being the situation I miss tea time with kids, I miss being there for my daughter for prep time, I miss meeting my friends - and keep all due responsibilities for weekends. All I do, when I get back home is ferociously fight with kids, and also fight with hubby- because I  have this feeling that I am the only one at home facing dog-life. Thanks to almighty, I have a supportive family that can understand and accept me. 

I guess it the deprivation of time with family that makes me feel so grumpy when I am actually with them. So instead of enjoying the little time with them, I tend to be moody and am growling at every simple thing. Now readers might want to think I have some bi-polar disorder or something!!

Nope absolutely not- I bet it is the effect that my work is taking on me. So why is it I am not quitting.......sure it has got something to do with my passion for teaching. So until I find the right destination I will still have to hold on tight.......