Have you ever...

 Have you heard of the jaggery experiment ? 

Have you checked it out on Google ?

Have your friends been discussing it?

If you are a teacher,  have you debated it with your pupils?

Have you used it to explain History,Geography or Math?

Did you use and AI tool like ChatGPT to find out more?

Or maybe LT rings a bell?

Do you know what Barrack Obama said about using it?

Whenever you think of the jaggery experiment what do you start reminiscing about?

Well if you haven't done any of the above you are like 74386229430 people on this planet who haven't either.

You see, the jaggery experiment was done over 1500 years ago in a remote village in Western India by a lady named Asunti. 

She did it once and never repeated it for fear of causing untold misery for her family and friends.

It all began when someone gave her family a large lump of unadulterated jaggery.

Omg I don't know where this is going so I will end here.

I have no clue ...........sorry.

When God's angels come calling

 When God’s angels come calling 

When God's angels come calling

Maybe - the devil at their heels

Will you welcome them with open arms?

Or will you shout and scream?

Will you be rejoicing, in the future you behold?

Or gnash your teeth in utter despair 

Because your soul

You have willingly sold?

Will you be packed and ready? 

Loving acceptance in your mind

Or caught completely unaware 

Because of belongings, you cannot find?

Candles will be burning

Incense filling the air

The mourners all assembled 

No more time to spare

The angels will sing with glory 

Their swords aflame with light 

While the devil, in his fury

Trying to unleash his Hadean might

But fear not all my people 

 For in the ultimate end

The righteous will prevail 

While the devil,

 in defeat, will kneel

 To the might of heaven's hail

So, let us take heart and stand

 Against the forces of the night

 For when God’s angels come calling 

We know we're on the side of the right.

The answers don't matter

 How many times have you been round the sun? 

Did you walk or did you run?

Maybe you strolled nonchalantly 

Looking, but seeing little!

How many times did you stop to smell the roses? 

To admire a rainbow

Or hear a little bird sing it's heart out

For a nonexistent audience?

Did you pluck a flower or admire 

An unrealistic cloud formation

That resembled an old man

Or a running horse?

Did you ever look at a vehicle passing by

On a lonely road

And wonder where they were going ?

Have you ever found yourself sitting

In a train

Speeding through the countryside 

Late at night

And then you spot a lone house

With a dimly- lit portico

And nothing else for miles around!

Is that not a brave family ? 

How many times have you paid a genuine compliment

And made someone's day?.

What about a warm greeting

A reassuring phone call 

 A brief email 

Or better still - a hand written note ?

Ever given them a try?

Each year seems shorter

Doesn't it?

Who do so many vague questions

Come to mind 

When the answers 

Don't even matter.

Banking and me

 Although I visit India, about thrice a year, I only visit my bank during my summer vacation as that's when I am in Pune for the longest stretch- approximately 3 weeks.

One of the first things I do after settling in over the weekend is ' visit SBI on East Street'.

If lucky, I see a face or two amongst the staff, who I have dealt with before and that's quite reassuring. (The others have probably been transfered.)

Them not remembering me is another story.

After waiting in line for about 30 min or so , it's finally my turn.

I have prepared for this visit well before leaving Dxb. 

Cheque books, Account numbers, Credit and Debit Cards ,miscelleanous receipts, Aadhar cards, Pan cards and whatever else I imagine the bank may ask for.

Thus, well armed, I approach the clerk smiling. 

She or he smiles back and right away I get into the job of reminding him or her how we met the year before. While engrossed in that , the clerk attends to calls, enquires from people behind me, clicks a few keys on the computer keyboard, drinks water, sips tea and rifles threw masses of papers on the desk.

That the clerk was not paying attention to me is obvious. So my 10 minute introduction has been wasted.

I make a second attempt. 

The manager suddenly summons the clerk so I am left sitting at the desk.  

I check my papers nervously and feel relieved that I have everything I need.

Meanwhile my wife asks me if I switched off the gas before leaving the house. 

I thank her for her query with a cold stare.

Meanwhile the clerk returns and asks me if I have filled the KYC.

I reply in the negative .

So I am handed a form which I attempt to fill in. 

Proof of Dxb and local address ? I manage to get this from my phone and look up triumphantly ! 

Photographs of my wife and myself- that was a breeze . Various copies - yes I have them.

Now I come to the cards . They have not been used for a year and never work.

Getting a new password is difficult as it has to be mailed to you. 

However I usually coax the clerk who makes an exception and so that's done.

As the card does not work right now,I need to withdraw some money.

Signing on the cheque book is something I dread. My signature never matches. The clerks are always suspicious. 

They ask me questions to check.

Where have I been for a year? Why haven't I used this account?. Why don't I remember my signature? 

At times they show me my old signature and ask me to copy it. 

I fail miserably.

I once suggested they take my thumb impression as that would be easy. They said no. But I can swear I have seen people affixing their thumb impression on bank cheques before. 

My wife has suddenly remembered that she used the iron at home .... did I use it too ? 

We argue as to whose fault it is. OMG her timing is always spot on. 

Meanwhile the clerk has checked, and as expected, my signature does not match.

She then needs a sign off from the manager. My frustration makes my ears go crimson.

I peep in and smile my most charming smile at the manager. She thinks I am acting smart and requests me to wait till she checks. She keys in some numbers and looks up. I don't know whether to smile or not. It's almost like passport control

 

I volunteer to show her documentation to prove I am the real deal. She finally believes me and I proceed to get the cash. 

The original plan was to lunch out .However that plan is shelved as we need to get home to see if the gas is still burning and the iron still on. 

Holidays are fun aren't they?

 A pensive mood

A vintage Port

The lamps aglow 

Sam 'lightnin' Hopkins for company.

Asking for more?

No. 

Desiring a change ? 

No.

Could be better

Yes!

But certainly not bad !

The lazy boy 

Cushions tucked in 

Legs stretched out 

Comfortable 

A cat purring at my feet

Begging for love?

Probably not.

She is a mean kitty

And as elusive as they come!

And then

Suddenly - a phone call 

Out of the blue 

And 

It all changes. 

The mood, the music, the wine too.

And what an unexpected change 

In seconds 

I am glad.

Euphoria? 

No .

Happy ? 

Oh yes 

Life . Yes that's life. 

Patience is a virtue 

And it pays .

Dinner beckons.

A tryst with trolleys

 I hate the trolleys in supermarkets.

Ok, let me tone that down before people start suggesting anger management classes for me – I like supermarkets and malls but I hate most of the trolleys therein.  

Now please don’t get me wrong – I love shopping for groceries and walking down long isles, buying things I don’t need. Let me modify that too before people brand me a shopaholic- my wife is the one doing the buying, while I am the one who is pushing the trolley.

Back to the trolleys, and our shopping last Sunday.

We needed a few vegetables and some curd according to the Mrs. and I knew right away what that meant, as it has happened before. We go in with good intentions, but by the time we are done with ‘shopping’ it’s about two hours, I am fed up with life as a married man, and looking for the nearest bench or chair to rest my weary body, but that, after finding the washroom. When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go!

So last Sunday was no different, but this is about the disgusting trolley that I pulled out from a line of about twenty. That’s Murphy’s law, isn’t it? You may wonder as to why I pushed it forward when I knew it was malfunctioning. Well, trolleys are sly creatures. They start out all smart and perfect and soon you are on roll – one isle after another. Then the inevitable happens. 

Like most husbands, I guess trolleys get a tad fed up too, and that’s when they start playing up. All was going well that day when all of a sudden, my trolley wheels seemed to have jammed and it came to an abrupt halt. After a few kicks and shakes all seemed ‘hunky dory’, but then, without so much as a by your leave, this monster started a game with me. It instantaneously started moving to the left. The more I tried to steer it straight, the more it kept veering off to the left. 

Before you can say “Jack be nimble”, I was banging into oncoming trolleys, knocking over large pumpkins, grazing people’s shins and knees, missing shelves of glassware by millimeters, and in general causing mayhem.

I was scolded by a rather fierce-looking man for attempting to force my way into the middle of a queue, when all I was actually doing, was trying to steer the trolley toward the payment counter. That was easier said than done. 

Did I tell you I had a bad back when I went in and this imbecile only made it worse? So here I am, limping along, back aching and pushing an overloaded trolley, that was as stubborn as a mad mule. 

After almost knocking an old lady off her feet and crashing into the payment counter, we cleared the bill and I breathed a sigh of relief. I just had to go down a small slope and then move towards the car park.

That’s when my trolley decided it needed to visit the lady’s loo. Yes, you read that right! Despite my best intentions, it went careening down the slope in the exact direction of the toilet, with me and my bad back limping along, trying to make it go straight out of the exit door nearby. 

Three ladies were chatting & exiting the toilet and I was almost inside! They jumped aside to avoid getting injured. A meter or so more, and I would probably have been escorted away by security and arrested. That would have made nasty news for sure!

My wife was oblivious to the agony I was in, as she was still looking to see what else she could buy on the way out, and that irritated me no end. 

We finally made it to the car, but not before almost scraping the side of an oncoming vehicle whose driver must have thought me insane, for seeing him approaching in broad daylight, yet walking in the center of the path in an attempted suicide mission. 

Please – can someone get these supermarkets and malls to service their trolleys?

The changing education scenario

 Change signifies progress and if there is one field that is changing rapidly, it's education and the way children are learning. 

We must also acknowledge the fact that they are more aware and literally and figuratively speaking, they have the world at their fingertips. 

Education in the not so distant future , is definitely going to be highly personalized, innovative and technology-driven and we must either keep pace or risk being left behind.

With the tremendous amount of advancements in AI and machine learning, educational systems will be able to cater to the unique learning needs of each student. We can already see the change happening in real time. 

This is being done through the use of adaptive learning software, which can adjust the pace and content of instruction based on a student's needs, performance and progress. 

Differentiation is crucial and the quicker educational professionals master the art, the better. The one size fits all model works no longer.

Online learning platforms are also becoming more prevalent, allowing students to access educational resources and take classes from anywhere in the world. 

Covid had a part to play here for sure. Almost overnight , most schools went online, thus ensuring that education did not suffer. 

There were the initial hiccups but sooon it was smooth sailing and pupils and teachers took to it like ducks to water. While observing online classes I saw change and progress happening daily. Today, books like The Encyclopedia Britannica are mere showpieces and I hardly see any value add at all.

Virtual and augmented reality technologies are now being used to create immersive learning experiences, making it possible for students to visit and explore historical sites, conduct virtual experiments, and more. In fact, we can already see that in almost all schools worth their salt.

One other important aspect of education is the emphasis on developing soft skills, such as critical thinking, leadership, communication, time management, conflict resolution, problem-solving, creativity and communication. These skills will be increasingly important as automation and technology continue to change the job market.

In addition, education will become more flexible and self-directed, with students given more autonomy to design their own learning paths and pursue their individual interests. This will allow for a more diverse, interesting and inclusive education system, where students of all backgrounds and abilities will thrive. 

The job market is seeing jobs being created, which never existed a decade or so ago. 

Blockchain jobs, ethical hackers, virtual content creators, youtubers and even online tutors or real time online entertainers are things I never even dreamed of!

This is such an exciting time for change .

At Gems Education, our schools are already well ahead of the curve. In order to continue to keep pace with the fast changing world and our keen pupils , our staff continue to research and learn. 

This is encouraging because it ensures that we are the market leaders in providing education for the future.

 

#GEMSEducation