Jack Of All, Master Of None

What makes a person different from the rest of the world? There might be n number of factors that define a person. I strongly believe our hobbies contribute a lot in defining the uniqueness of a person. Hobbies help to bring out various dimensions of a person. Hobbies help in identifying our skill sets and field of interests. This is one reason why we all have a column in our resumes to mention our hobbies.

Every one of us might have a list of hobbies. To mention a few of mine (most of them short lived)

Dancing

I loved to dance. But I hated it when it came to attending tiresome classes and eventually ended up in discontinuing. Since then I had performed on so many stage shows under my mom's guidance. This was my first hobby and now its almost died off.

Singing

Initially I was forced into this. Though I was not so good at this as I was in dancing, it got quiet interesting as time passed by. I stopped attending classes after I became a software engineer. But I can still manage to sing a classical number at a family function or so.

Teaching

One interesting activity that kept me busy for hours....All about this, I had mentioned in my previous blog.

Versification

Inspired by a friend of mine, I took to writing poetry during my high school days. I do write one or to pieces occasionally.

Short Story writing

An activity that really requires a lot of creativity. For me this was easier than writing poetry.

Needle work and Embroidery

This was introduced as a subject in school when I was in class 5. Until class 4 it was drawing and painting, something I wasn't capable of doing. So this appealed more to me and I learnt it quickly. Making my own hand kerchiefs was more exciting to me than having a cartoon painted in my drawing book.

Crochet

After needle work it was crochet. I hated this until I really learnt the knack. Making hairbands, mats and caps from a bundle of wool was good enough to keep me engaged during my summer vacations.

Stamp collection

A very short lived hobby of mine. It was my cousin's idea and both of us started to create an album with some rare stamps. The album is still available in my cupboard at home.

Coin collection

Another short lived one. My dad handed over his collection of coins which I have safeguarded for some time and would occasionally add one or two coins to the collection. I believe this collection is also still preserved in my cupboard at home.

Post card Collection

Post card photos were a craze for some time. While travelling, we (my brother and me) used to purchase a set of photo post cards and have them labelled and arranged in an album.

Picture Albums

Yet another idea from my cousin. Collecting pictures based on different topics and pasting them on a A4 size notebook. It started with the Disney and cartoon stickers and went on to several topics related to science, sports and everything on earth.

Puzzle solving

There was a time when I used to look out for the puzzle section (I forgot the name) Saturday's Young world, a supplementary magazine to the "Hindu" newspaper. Working out Maths quizzes and puzzles are/were my favourite pass time. Recently its the Sudoku that's keeps me busy at times. Shakuntala Devi's puzzles are all time fascinating. Preparing for a PCM or IGSC scholarship exam was far more interesting than doing my regular coarse of homework.

Reading

I don't remember reading much during my school days except for the editions of Champak, Tinkle and Gokulam. I took up reading recently in order to avoid boredom when the Television set disappeared from my house in Chennai. I started with the Sherlock Holmes series and then with some of Sydney Sheldon, Arthur Hailey and Chetan Bhagath

Greeting Card Collection

Another favourite hobby of mine. Started with the collection of greetings I received for my birthday when I became 12. From then, I have been adding all kind of greeting cards to my collection.

Handicrafts

Am not very good at art. But I could manage making greeting cards, envelopes, shoe flowers, plastic garlands, etc....Some of these would come handy when it comes to the doll arrangement for Dashera (Navarathri).

Apart from all these, there are other things that caught my attention. I wanted to learn keyboard and Veena (I never succeeded). Window shopping is yet another activity that I used to kill my weekends in Chennai. Riding my bike was another activity I enjoy in order to kill my free evenings.

As every other child, indoor games were a major source of pass time during childhood. When the summer vacation began, we cousins used to spend a day to go out and shop on indoor games and sports material. Some of the indoor games that used to keep us seated for hours together were aggrevation, cards, Tell Me Quiz, Gold cup cricket, Brainvita, Business, Chinese checkers and Uno Cards. There was one fabulous but simple game with sea shells which our aunt taught us to play and we spent hours together on this. As far as outdoor games are concerned I don't remember playing anything other than skipping and Badminton. Occasionally, it used to hide and seek and Pande (a very old game where you hop into boxes drawn on the ground after throwing a stone on one of the boxes). Occasionally I used to go cycling along with friends and cousins.

As of date, my pass times include listening to music and watching movies. Chatting and orkuting are others.

I am sure anyone who reads will have a list of the same size or may be a bit bigger one.

Teaching - A PASSION

To start "blogging", I had 2 topics in mind. Somehow, I decided to go with this subject.

Teaching - I had been into it right from my high school days until I completed my degree. I had never ever imagined myself as a teacher. Mathematics was my favourite subject in school and I presumed Accounts/commerce to play a major role in my career but ended up doing my engineering degree in Electronics and Communication and finally landed on a s/w job.

Now coming to the subject, I accidentally got involved into the so called 'divine profession'. Though not a full time job, I enjoyed every moment of it. I started by assisting my mom in teaching Mathematics for a group of high school students. Most of these students were my friends, juniors and neighbours. They got so much accustomed to my way of teaching that they requested me to continue coaching them for their board exams. Actually I had no idea to do that for I had just finished my board exams and felt that I was not mature enough to take up this responsibility. I was excited about it. But accepting this meant so much a commitment for me. Anyway it was to be under my mom's supervision and that made things a bit easy. The other factor was that I had known this group of students for years together. Yeah...that's how it all started and was not as tough as thought. The group came out with flying colours and so I continued with the next batch and the next and so on for about 6 years until I finished my college.

What was in it that really kept me involved for so long. One, I enjoyed spending time with different kind of students...their questions. I get to know a lot about different schools. I get to see different text books. In fact, I learnt a lot of concepts in Mathematics as a teacher than as a student. Things that I missed to understand in school, got clearer everyday. Answering questions meant learning more of my favourite subject.

Of course it helped me earn my pocket money. This in turn depicted me as a responsible person in the family and society. The one other benefit I derived from it was it kept me in touch with the subject and helped me attend all my aptitude tests for my job interviews with ease and comfort.

Above all these, was the sense of satisfaction. Sitting all night preparing model question papers, spending that extra time with the students to have them answered and evaluating their answer sheets are moments that I have enjoyed doing during those days. Day before exams I normally used to have short sessions with the students, picking up important topics/problems, suggesting ways of studying to boost up their confidence and providing tips on answering the examination paper. It often happened that one or few of them show up after they finish their exams and shout out of excitement, "Akka, the recurring deposit problem that you marked yesterday was on the question paper today." I always was the happiest person in the world at that moment.

Even more exciting is the day of the board exam results. I was never bothered about when my semester results were declared. But I used be the first person to log on to the Internet to check the board exam results with a list of register numbers in front of me. The feel of satisfaction I experienced when I found my student successful in my favourite subject has no bounds. It's hard to describe what I felt when I knew that one of my students secured a cent percent in one of the mathematics paper, though I haven't had a chance to meet her since then. The height of satisfaction is attained when parents call up to express their happiness and gratitude on the good job I had done through out the year (in some cases it's years together).

It's almost 5 years, since I am out of teaching and out of my hometown (since I got to work as a s/w engineer). Whenever I visit my hometown, I get a chance to see some of my students. Its a great feeling when they come up to me and wish me. It brings out my curiosity to know what they are up to.

I do keep in touch with some of them directly or indirectly get to know of them as I still have my brother staying in my hometown. Thanks to orkut for I receive occasional Hi's from some lovable students.

Today I cherish every moment I spent teaching and those fond memories will never perish, for it will be remembered all through my life. In fact I will be glad to take up teaching, if I get the chance and time.

What got me here?

Blogging is one very common word that I have been hearing for quiet sometime now. I was never attracted to this until I saw my bro posting some real good stuff. I used to do a lot of writing during my school days. As years passed by, its been diminishing and now I realize that I haven't done real justice to that.

While browsing through my bro's blog, sweet memories of one of my childhood friends flashed across my mind. She was a great writer during her school days and was the one who inspired me to write as well. I have always loved her poetry and short stories. I had a chance to meet her a few months ago when she enquired if I was still into writing. This was the first time during my recent past had I realized what I was doing to my writing skills.

So will try and post some of my thoughts as and when I get time.