Pleasant Visit to Mango Village, Palakkad - Flam of India

After a hectic and tiresome work, my husband Sriram wanted to spend leisure time during our 12th wedding anniversary. He specifically wanted the place not to be a tourist spot or with lot of attractions but a place where we can enjoy nature as it is. He identified Mango Village home stay in Palakkad through his friend and booked for 2 days.

As the trip was planned in short notice we travelled to Pollachi by bus and then took a cab to Mango Village. By its name, the place indeed is full of acres of mango trees, though devoid of mangoes as its not the season.
On our anniversary day, we got refreshed and had typical breakfast and went to a natural pond attached to the resort. All four of us had life jacket and enjoyed swimming in 20feet deep water(!).

The pond had a wondeful view of western ghats mountain surrounding it. Small streaks of waterfalls were seen at many palces on the mountains. It looked as though we were in Flam - a place in Norway, which was surrounded by mountains with waterfalls & Fjords. Flam is also called as a village with a scenic environment just like Mango Village.

                                                                                          

Later we relished the taste of typical Kerala
lunch and had a good sleep under the tree on hammock. The home stay hosts were very friendly and made us comfortable. Later in the evening, children enjoyed playing in the open park & lawn along with home-stay owner kids and a new friend from Thrissur called Advika. Meera liked playing with her and fond of calling her as Advika Akka.

Around 6pm, we thought of visiting a temple closeby as it was our anniversary day and came to know most of the temple would close by 7p,. Luckily , by God's grace we were blessed to have darshan of Lord Ayyappan.

That night dinner was special as we had it on the open lawn, enjoying moonlight & cold breeze. The minute we completed our dinner, it started drizzling. After a leisure day we had a good sleep.

Second day we planned to go to nearby Seetharkund falls where Goddess Seetha had taken bath. Path to that lake seemed a small hiking on the mountain and

Sriram had been careful in choosing a safe place to take bath, as the water was flowing at high speed. Spent an hour enjoying the waters and wondering the nature around.
After having breakfast had a good time reflecting on Tamil movie songs with Advika's father Anil and mother Preethi. It was a relishing chit-chat spanning on spiritual, philosophy, music etc. On
the other hand, Kids had a good time playing around. 

That day evening we went to a paddy field and stream nearby. Kids had good time playing with water again. While returning Sriram and myself went on zip liner above the pond. There were also some challenging adventurous rope walkers which Sriram wanted to do. He mustered courage and went on to do that.

However, as children wanted to do swimming along with Advika, I accompanied them to the swimming pool. Later when I saw the video of Sriram crossing the rope walkers in eveing dim light, I was surprised. Very happy to see him taking up challenging rope walking.


 Advika and family extended their stay for one more night, as Advika wanted to spend time with Barathraam and Meera. It's some nice to see children gelling with each other within short span of time. Had a wonderful stay in Mango Village - home away from home!

Third day we bid adieu to the hosts and Advika's parents and started to visit Isha Yoga center in Coimbatore. We were blessed to see Dhyana Linga and Adhi Yogi. I could feel the vibrations and peace while doing meditation under Dhyana Linga, seeking Lord's blessings to always think, speak, do good deeds along with good people and community.

With Lord's blesssings had a memorable Anniversary trip.

Introspection on this Teacher's day!

Recognizing the noble work of all teachers and salute them on this Teacher's day. A small write up based on my introspection.

On this Teacher's day, I read an article about how, many young students get inspired by their teachers but not aspire to become a teacher! Yes, indeed that's true and even worse some parents also might not want their children to become teachers! This made me ponder on what I felt when I was in school. I remember such questions of what do we want to become propped up and most of the answers were to be a doctor/scientist/computers/engineer etc and may be very few mentioned Teacher! I myself did not want to be a teacher and would think how can Teachers teach the same book always throughout their lives. Teaching might not be interesting as it would require us to go over same class, same book, same syllabus and no room for creativity, challenging tasks, recognition etc, leaving aside the salary part. In my myopic view from my childhood, I saw the role of a Teacher, though considered to be noble, as a person who toil more to make the children understand and get good marks. And some special teachers do share us inputs on how other traits like discipline, self-interest are more important for students along with marks. However, in my childhood view, I did not see any extended roles for teachers other than knowledge delivery. And that made me kinda decide not to pursue Teaching profession.

           In recent years, I had the opportunity to take some volunteering teaching options for college students, school students and community kids and I felt like I thoroughly enjoy the time I work with them. Yes, I want to mention it as working with children rather than teaching children. For teaching to me seems to be one way from teacher to student and working kinda gives scope as a co-creator and co-learner including both children and teacher.

           From my recent experience, I have to say, that my childhood notion of teaching as a profession lacking creativity and challenging task, is not true and it largely depends on the setup or environment (schools) where Teachers are working. During all the instances of working with children recently, I had the option of not having syllabus, room for creativity to engage with children and come up with interesting activities, thinking ways to grab their attention and create responses. Certainly this kinda role would demand Teachers to spend more time in preparation and execution, but I think over the years, Teachers can surely master it such that it comes naturally.

           It's also a welcome change to see many Role Model teachers who take extra steps in reaching out to students and help them evolve as a better and successful human being. Teachers do have a BIG heart to ignite passion in minds of SMALL children. I am sure students would remember some special teachers forever who brought that change in them. And this could be one of the intrinsic motivation and a sense of satisfaction for the teachers that would keep them pursue this as a profession. Have to give a big applause and standing ovation to all the teachers who brighten up everyday of a child, despite their health, family and other problems. Especially when this act of theirs is neither recognized nor paid well off. Teachers definitely need a good recognition platform, that would just not stop with awards.
             
              Now, after spending more than a decade in industry, having an inclination on science oriented learning, if I ask myself about pursuing teaching as a profession for the rest of my life - the answer would be "Yes I would certainly enjoy, however would be giving a thought on what roles I can take other than working with children in academics - be it a co-ordinator, career counsellor, mentor to brainstorm science projects, mentor for transforming ideas to solutions etc.. Not just a teacher though!"

             It would be really good to see a paradigm shift in the teaching domain, which would allow more teachers to take the role of not just teaching but being a co-creator, co-learner and influencer along with children, such that seeing them children gets aspired to become teacher. Its good to know that these points form the basis of International Baccalaureate curriculum and essence of Akshar Arbol International School. Happy to be a parent volunteer there.

I take this moment to pay my gratitude to my school teachers who instilled the habit of self-interest in my learning. Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

பட்டு விட்டுப்போன மனம்

உணர்வுகளுக்கு மதிப்பில்லாமல் போனால்

மரத்து போனதாகிவிடும் மனம்

மரம் கூட வெட்டுபட்டால்

பட்டு போய்விடும்

மனம் வெட்டுப்பட்டால்

பட்டு போகாமல்

விட்டு கொடுத்து போ என்பது தான்

பெண்மையின் உயர் குணம் 

ஆனால்  மரத்து போன பெண் மனதிற்கு

பரிசானாலும் பழியானாலும் பாசமானாலும்

வித்யாசம் இல்லை !!!

நீண்ட வருடங்களுக்கு பின் ஒரு கவிதை -- வித்யா