make sentences

today i spent 2 hours helping my neighbour's son with his school homework. he was learning new words and had two words with the letter 'h', the words being 'hawker' and 'hurry'.

and it took me a whooping two hours to be through with the sentences. i tried my best that he understood the meaning and usage of the words and also had to ensure that the sentence was of the level for a grade 2 kid. some observations

- is 'hawker' a word fit for a grade 2 kid to learn.

- how is the kid going to make sentences when he is not aware things called noun / tenses /verb / articles etc.

- the kid had absolutely no motivation to study. he just wanted to be through with his homework. he also knows that students cannot be made to repeat classes in primary section i.e. no student would fail till class five. you cannot tell him that you will fail if you don't study.

- he was not interested in concentrating on learning, his mind kept on wandering.

after the 'class' i wondered how i cleared my school in straight 12 years. may be thats what you call Grace of God.

Triple Filter Test - True/Good/Useful

Today the Parish Priest shared a small story during the homily. Found it very meaningful. The theme for today's liturgy was 'What comes out of a man is what defiles him'. Here is the story i got online

In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC) Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said
"Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"
"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my student let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you're not certain it's true?"
The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.
Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really"
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor Good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
The man was defeated and ashamed.

Independence Day Speech at Chruch

Was assigned today to give a short speech in hindi and english on the occasion of Independence Day. Jotted down some words, not sure if I really meant them. But still, the speech was delivered.

Today we are celebrating our 66th Independence Day – 65 years of striving for progress, development, equality – trying to make a respectable position for India in the world order. There have been high points, there have been low points as well,  but overall the journey has been fulfilling

Be it exemplary production of agricultural production in the last fiscal or our improved performance in sports, it sure did bring a smile on each Indian face and made our hearts swell with pride. On the other hand, we also witnessed some unfortunate events like natural calamities, civil unrest, economic crisis. But we as a country have overcome all these obstacles to emerge as a stronger nation.

Our growth might have been slow at times, but it has been steady, bringing us to a vantage point from where we can accelerate for higher growth. India's 1.2 billion population striving hard for a better tomorrow, trying to make India a better place to live.

The government has been playing its role in the process of growth and development. Some of its measure and policies were successful while some failed to achieve their purpose. India also witnessed strong agitations and demonstrations against corruption and malpractices in the system. But all these have made the Indian Citizen more aware and demanding.

As responsible citizens, we should try and play a more constructive role in building and strengthening the nation. We need to rise above the limitations of cast, creed, religion and work as one nation – its time we put 'India First'

As the ancient proverb goes – we have not inherited this earth from our ancestors but have borrowed it form our children – we need to channelize our efforts and capabilities to build a better nation for our future generations

Long Live Independent India.