Art and speech

   

The room with a view, a mug with a message....Ideas worth drinking! Perfect place to learn

My main mission has always been that Prisha should get as independent as she can. Its been exhausting trying to constantly drill many things together. At times I knew why and at times I just pushed it. The many denials, wailing, anger, tears etc just didn't affect me. All the while I was trying to make sure she gets exposed to as much as she can given the situation and limitations.
     At NJIS, she seems to settle pretty well. This year she just has 4 other students in class. At times I am ennerved then I calm myself down thinking of positive thought. There is a reason she is here and destiny shall pave her path. This school she is getting exposed to art and public speaking. So I am all out to use these for her. The teachers are fantastic. Her public speech teacher is a TED talk speaker and who better can give her tips on public speaking than her! After me she has to start these talks and has to inspire parents, specally the mothers to work with their kids! Ms. Ilonka is an amzing teacher with so much to offer! So when I heard she is holding "art for terified kids" I enrolled her for that without getting into details as I know she would give a huge extention to art besides just draw and paint. True....that is so right!! Prisha and I went in yesterday and we realize that this is one of the best things to happen to us! I walked into her class to observe and I became her student! Those 30 mins with her taught me so much more. I learnt to visualize art through writing and quotes. They just spoke to my soul and before I realized I was actually painting! After years of sitting at home and trying to do various things, this was a wonderful extention of my life! As Ilonka preped up for the class, Prisha played the piano....another thing that we wanted to learn and see how she got to play it! The whole ambiance was amazing! Art and music is the best combination anyways!Prisha and I painted and had such a good time finding ourselves through those writings.

Public speaking classes

     Today Prisha had her public speaking class, and I thought of sitting in as a learner. I feel they would help me guide Prisha at home and also it would help me in my speeches as well. The time just flew and it was wonderful to find my confidence there. All the speeches done in the past have given me a voice thats not afraid to come out in the open. The small nuances and essentials made me feel quite at home. I saw Prisha answering quite a few things with confidence. It gave me a small eye view of what she does in her classrooms and if she is really involved in the conversations with the teachers I am so happy that this part of learning shall open so many doors for Prisha and help her build her future in a positive way.
    I am happy to be there more as a learner myself with Ilonka. There is no age to learn and am so happy to be a student and be learning alongside my daughter. She has been a big turning point in my life and she gave me a chance to learn so much without having to read books. My silver greys are growing yet my mind keeps me wanting to learn as a little student. After all there are so many wise people in the world whose knowledge can benefit my thinking process and perhaps help me to extend that to others. I am grateful each day for these blessings. After all its moments like these that make you better people with more good things to add in life. 

Reflection on social attitude

I am reflecting a lot on attitude of people towards disabilities these days. The lack of awareness,uncaring attitude, callousness and lack of tolerance is what I see in people around them. It makes me wonder what kind of people we are building for future in our kids. The drive to make it senselessly with barely any empathy in our kids is very disheartening. I wonder how they will deal with disabilities if they had to face it in future. I feel sad looking at them. The fault lies with us adults. To meet deadlines and prove a mindless game and drive we are forgetting to make the kids sensitive. It's money that is driving us. The ambitions to make it in life at any cost. 

I see my community is in a mad rush. They have no time to breathe and enjoy life. The fight to finish is on and shall never stop. The small things we did as kids these kids will never learn as they are told to perform from the day they enter school. Life shall pass by and they will learn this cut throat attitude and lose all sensitivities and sensibilities. I see adults talking rudely and that is picked up by young minds they follow it as that's what they all see. Is it what we want for the gen-next? 

These days with so much exposure and and diagnosis we have knowledge of so many new issues and the future shall unfortunately bring many more. Things we never heard in our times, today are many more and the future would bring many more. How will this generation deal with disabilities? I can foresee a lot of frustration for them as well as isolation. Also I see lot of them accepting it and doing little about it coz they want to live for themselves. They would be happy to delegate their job to "specialists" who would mint money on their account while they worked harder to earn that. 

I feel it's very essential to educate the young minds and make them better people. A little moral science lessons we did as kids would do no harm to them. I often hear mums telling the kids to "give it back" ... Instead would love to hear "be kind and patient and help those who need a hand". That's the community that would bring peace, friendships , feeling of well being and integration around. Till then we can stop, look around and reflect on what's happening around us and only feel the pinch and the pain when it strikes us.