Fluky Wisdom

Unofficially I started teaching dance (Kuchipudi) five years ago.. in bits and pieces but to never more than ten students. In that way, 2019 is a very special year for me as I took up teaching more seriously and vigorously. I still consider myself as an amateur teacher as I learn every day while teaching my kids and hence I share my joys and struggles as a teacher in this series of "Amateur Teaching Tales".   My commitment to my students is only two classes a week, 8 classes per month. But as a person who walked the same path, I could feel the pressure of bringing improvement in them in the stipulated time and I am very emotional about their progress. In fact, I see myself in my students, my master in me and my parents in my students' parents. When my students don't practice, I yell at them saying, "You don't understand! I walked the same path hence please understand the importance of practice". Every moment I teach them, I remember my teacher on ho

I and my cousins were in the theatre wearing 3D glasses and the movie began... Two young children ask their father to tell them an interesting story and the father’s narration begins in the form of a song... He sings… "Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place Where the caravan camels roam Where it's flat and immense And the heat is intense It's barbaric, but hey, it's home When the wind's from the east and the sun's from the west And the sand in the glass is right Come on down stop on by Hop a carpet and fly To another Araaaaaabian nighhhhhhtssss………" and with the Arabic music that followed this sentence, I got goose bumps (thanks to the extraordinary sound technology). From that very moment, I was all eyes throughout the movie, cried, laughed, and awestruck and was in another world for the next two hours. If you are a movie buff who never fails to watch a good film, you would have heard this article’s title recently in a spect

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” – Descartes I have been writing my thesis for the past few months, reading a lot of books as a part of the process. Juggling between performing, teaching, practicing and Ph.D. has been so overwhelming that it gave me a lot of stress and anxiety. This led to a terrible consequence called 'Emotional Reading'. Yes. Although reading my subject books strained my eyes, I still chose to read so many non-fiction books to reduce my anxiety and stress. And what a wonderful bad habit it is. It keeps us away from the bad, boring and cliched movies, gossips, low-quality conversations and makes us travel through time. These are a few of the books I read, reading and re-reading for the last couple of months along with reading books related to my research work. Presenting five of them in this post.  1. Real Artists Don't Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Cr

03-11-2018 Hyderabad I was having a rough day and reached home tired. After an hour of reaching home, my two little flowers turned up for dance class. Seeing those innocent faces itself would always be an instant mood lift. Today, it was even more wonderful as my two 6-year-old students were determined to perfect their steps. They didn't complain of their sweating, they didn't complain of me not giving a water break, they didn't even complain about their legs hurting. All they wanted was a little pat from me that they did well. While one student strives to maintain her constant smile on her face just because I asked her to smile, the other student wouldn't stop dancing until I say. Sometimes, I ask her to practice the same step and would forget. After 15 minutes, I still see her dancing without break and I always end up being in a state of awe at her determination. Teaching was never my passion as I consider myself still a student and I like performing. But, whe