Teachers same everywhere!

Before I start writing about this post, I would like to say that this is based only on my personal experience. Like many things in life that cannot be generalized..

I have hardly seen any teacher who does what he preaches. Almost all of the teachers I met from my school days are good in commanding and getting things done from us. But least is their interest in keeping up their words.
Finland teachers are not an exception!

I had many rounds of discussion with my Professor for my assignment and he gave me a strict deadline to submit those changes we discussed. Sadly, I could not spend more time for the assignment before the deadline (as always), and rushed up in the last two days. Spent two days of round the clock thinking, sleepless nights and finally managed to send it on time.

Its been more than a week now since I sent him the assignment. He is supposed to give me comments about my assignment in a day or two after my submission.
But I have not got anything from him yet!

For a second, I felt if the efforts I spent on it is worth? When I try to keep up my word so badly amidst work and other assignments, why is not he?
Is it because he is a busy Professor and need not keep up his word to a Student?
So am I going to be the same way as he in my future assignments?

Wait. This is not a Student's attribute.. As a Student, I have to learn only the good things from the Teacher , and should discard all such bad things.

I think we should be only a Student all through our life and seek only good things. Never become a Teacher unless you do what you preach.

As the Tamil saying goes,
கற்றது கை மண் அளவு கல்லாதது உலகளவு.

So let us be a Student and Seek good always.

Juggling, responsibility, commitment and more...

As you grow so is your responsibilities..
At some point of time we could suddenly recognize that all our time is completely occupied. This point of realization can happen out of our frustration or lacking time for hobbies(includes sleep!), perhaps on our introspection when we did something ugly in our activities etc.
But, in the first point its good to recognize that we are completely occupied, may be entangled in our activities! Only then, we can understand the importance of planning.

I still cherish the childhood days spent roaming around claiming it as studying, playing and fighting with brother.. but then I cannot afford it now.
I have to say it was quite difficult to me when I started studying at Tampere University though it is flexible.. may be because of the heaps of assignments..
and have to manage cooking and stuff.
Then when I started working at Nokia, I know its going to be a nightmare to manage all: work, study, home..
During initial weeks of my joining I had many meetings.. not only at office, but in college.. As most of our assignments are group assignments, groupmates have to meet and discuss about it. Oh!

But now when I looked back on how I handled them, I am satisfied though there are some scope for improvements. I havenot missed any meetings, been prepared with my assignments and discussions and also attended the induction meetings. Though it wasnt so many meetings, it really demanded planning and preparation. One important aspect to ponder is the quality of activities I pursued. I would say neither it was best nor it was worst.

I am happy it dint turn worst and I know it wont be best. But the reason I am feeling satisfied is the courage I mustered to not abandon my activities and shrug off my responsibilities. Juggling can be easy by tapping the tactics but juggling with responsibility & commitment comes from proper planning and preparation.

This experience and satisfaction has brought in me being committed to all our activities, for we dont know which one brings us favour.
Needless to say, I am motivated, for I dint do those activities for recognition, reputation nor remuneration but for my satisfaction.

Another view that struck me is, do we need to have a limit on our activities??! Ofcourse yes, will pour in my view in a separate post.

Exams! Exams! and some more exams!

This week had been a rally of exams for me. But there is much more than my exam experience in this post.

Exams in Finland are not quite frightening as in India, not because of simple questions though.
There are three times that you can take up an exam and best of three is considered as the grade for that course. If fortunately you got good grade in the first attempt, you can be satisfied with it. If you dint get good grade you always have a possibility of taking it twice again. You can even skip the first exam if you cannot make it. Its quite really flexible!

I could see some striking significance in having this kinda exam flexibility. First and foremost, many a times in India, I always fell sick during exams (not exam fever!) and happened to take it by mustering energy. For I will be considered Fail if I skipped it and the next time I take it, its considered as Arrears! Oh pity on me..
So I really like this flexibility for I always have two more chances (hoping I wont feel sick then).
Isnt it real that my case can happen to anyone. Does students who cant prepare or attend exam for some worthy reason, consider that its their FATE to be failed.
Why is there only one chance to prove yourself?? Exam is not a competition, it just tries to evaluate your understanding. Isnt it the sole reason behind students getting frightened about exams??! How can we ask students to not get afraid on exams with this exam structure?
Something serious to ponder on our Indian exam structures.

Yesterday I took my Finnish exam without a single minute preparation. Though I spent my time preparing for another exam next day, I really wanted to give a try based on my class work.
And, it did went well, except that I know I am wrong in my answer but dont know what is right :-). It was real fun writing it.

Ofcourse, I am going to take my next Finnish exam with some preparation knowing what to prepare!

Fascinating to see snow first time!

Since I had come to Finland, I heard people warning about the November month dark climate and people's depression feeling then. But now that November has passed, I could say, yes it was dark most of the day, but may not be depressing so much as people were warning.. I think its perhaps the people's slight dull feeling got aggravated by collective feeling. Like, when I say its dull and I am down, and gets the same reply from most of my friends, I feel even more dull. I am not an expert in psychology, but I could infer this from my experiences with people here.. Though I basically feel that we can change our moods by changing our thoughts and involving in different activities, I have to accept, that it is quite difficult in practice. Yes, I did feel tired after spending long hours of lectures and assignments, and it gets even worse when I came out of the college and saw the dark evenings. I do wish it to be bright then, to make me bright. But Nature is not on our demand. Once I reach home, sheer presence of Sriram charges me up. I do scream at him manytimes, but he remains calm and cheer me up in his own way. Nowadays I get accustomed to this climate and know how I can be charged! After a few days of ordeal in this climate, one fine afternoon in the midst of my assignment work at my Chinese friend's 6th floor apartment, I saw many tiny white dust flying down. On a second look, I could recognize that it was SNOW! sorry, may be flurry. But I was excited.. Next day, I was not feeling well, and woke up late. Sriram woke me up and told that it snowed last night. We both enjoyed seeing snow for the first time. It was nice to walk down to college that morning, walking over fresh snow. Children had started making snowman early morning. I could understand why Finns like snow instead of rain. It really makes the place bright. On my urge to know, how snow makes the place bright even when the sky is cloudy, I found a research paper substantiating it. You can find it here How places covered by snow is bright! You can go through selected parts of it according to your liking. One and all it was really fascinating to see SNOW and that too after November's climate. At the same time, I would say we need to learn to relish the taste for all types.

Nature has something for us on November before it reveals itself as snowy December!

My First Thematic Photo in Finland!

Atlast I shot a thematic photo in the woods of Finland..

Life always gives us choices
Its we who decide which to choose
And become what to be...
Angry or poised
Irritated or assuring
Hatred or love
And umpteen acts depends on what we choose to be..
As every way leads to a path
Every act crafts the character!

Choose your way and your act!

Interestingly, the fact I am here in Finland is itself our choice!

Taare Zameen Par

-- every child is special

I could not move my eyes and heart away from the theatre screen even a single moment, till the last frame. The movie captivated my heart. Though I have no words to comment about it, my heart is fully filled with elegant way the movie takes us.
The movie stands an example for "Brevity is the soul of wit". I really admire the way the sensitive issue is told not in a serious tone, but with a meticulously crafted humorous, thought provoking scenes conveying the problem.
Thousands of Thanks to Amole Gupta for such a wonderful story-line and to Aamir Khan for his excellent direction and the entire team for giving us such a Movie that Moves Anyone. A Must Movie for parents & Teachers...
Its also special for it is the first movie watched by US!

If we want to... We can..

I dont know which incident made an impact on me, I used to see to that I dont contribute to the waste outside waste-bin from my childhood. Be it in house or road, beach or park, I adher to my conviction. Lately as I grew up, and exposed to green house effect, global warming etc, I also ensured that I took steps to lessen my contribution towards it.

While I keep saying this, one day incidentally I found that I was unknowingly contributing to global warming by using more polythene bags I use every week for buying vegetables.. I could work out in a way, that using polythene bags every week can be avoided. Yes, that comes with a cost of my time and effort. But the time & effort invested is worth it.

I started re-using the plastic bags I used and carry them with me for buying vegetables for forth-coming week. It is surely an easy way with minimum effort from my side. I was wondering why it dint strike me all these days and suddenly hit me a day. Perhaps, I might have been more conscious these days. Now-a-days, people around me picking vegetables looking at me differently, holding bunch of plastic bags.. But I dont mind and would be happy if someone get inspired and start re-using plastic bags.