Now I troubled my mind as I was not ready for this I was so sure I am going to say NO to whatever he had to offer to sell. But I had to ask myself do I really know the history of the world, okay forget the world lets get smaller "ASIA ?? .... errr", okay still smaller "INDIA?? ... mmm ..well.. yeah ... I know the Mughals, Freedom Struggle and all that is there more to it??"

Well as Yudhishtir once answered that the fastest thing in the world is our thoughts and I couldnt beleive in a span of few minutes I could think so much. A book that made me think is worth every penny and yes I bought the book from this young man.

As I flipped through its beautiful and colorful pages readin the interesting historical facts about our world i wondered why this subject never interested me in school. Infact I hated the subject HISTORY so much that I used to wonder it is "HIS - Story not MY-Story" then why am I being forced to read it. I couldnt wait for my 10th board exam to get rid of my history books.

Now I realize that be it my Mom or the teachers in school all they expected me to do is study the subject to pass out with good marks. Whether I enjoyed it or not was secondary. Its amazing how studying for grades takes away the interest towards the subject as happened to me. If I had a time machine I could have gone back during my school days and perhaps studied HISTORY will all new interest :))

So dear Moms out there, make sure to make the subject interesting to your child before you push them to score higher scores in the subject. Even if it is a recreational subject like ARTS.

Any help in this regard will be appreciated :)

Thanks

Mridula

Take some rice powder mix it with cold water nicely. Now all you need to do is Place this mixture on medium flame and add some boiling hot water to it. Allow this mixture to thicken and then bring it room temperature add some white vinegar to it or even salt will do. Now allow it to cool in an airtight container and use it the next day. :))

It was so satisfying to watch one of my weakest students coloring his drawing neatly for the first time after 3 months of coaching. While all his batch mates had progressed to the next level, he was finding it tough to concentrate and focus on his drawing and painting. I am really a happy person to see him developing focus and poise in what he is doing.

Similarly I got positive feedbacks from two parents whose children have had been really naughty and now the fact that they sit at one place for one and half hours and finish their drawing and painting has taken them by surprise. One of the Mom even said "you are doing some magic that he waits for your class every day of the week".

I must say it has been an amazing week for me to get such rewarding complements from parents. :) It just gives me a feel that GOD is telling me "Yo Babe!! You are doing the right thing the right way! Keep it up!" :)

Some children are blessed with lot of energy in them and it is upto us the teachers and parents alike how well we harness the same and guide that energy into a positive direction. As I have never worked for a school as such, I am not sure if they organize workshops for teachers on the subject of child psychology.

I myself was never a hyper active naughty kid yet I was very scared of strict teachers. The very sight of such teachers punishing other children used to send chills down my spine. When some parents come to me and advise me to be strict with their child, I try to make them understand to my level best how such behaviour on my part can affect the psyche of other children.

That doesnt mean I let unruly children be the way they are in my class.  A student-teacher relation should be  that of love and respect, perhaps the respect part is diminishing now but if as a teacher I can work on making the children feel loved they tend to reciprocate unconditionally. Once a child developes a liking towards the teacher it is easier to make the child understand that he/she needs to listen to the teacher and follow her guidance. However if the same idea is put across with force, the repulsion from the child will be greater. As my subject is art, a child's focus is of primary importance. Thats the first stepping stone before they start moving towards acquiring creative calibre. A child will never allow you to work on building his focus on the subject unless he really likes you.

Some feel they can manage better by making the child feel they are their friends and not teachers. I do not agree to that methodology completely. But again how you manage to handle children differs from individual to individual. There cannot be a RULE BOOK that can be followed step by step. It is with experience you get to know what works the best for you. It is important for me to be strict when it comes to certain aspects of child behaviour. For example, there has been instances where I have heard four letter word amidst my students and it was extremely important for me to let them know such words MUST NOT be used in my class. When I take class at my place some kids have the tendency to jump on the sofa, again I need to make them understand through a logical approach that it should not be done.

I have observed that current generation can be better handled in logical way than the dictator kind of method. The dictatorship of parents and teachers have come to an end :) Its now more of a democratic nature where you need to allow certain level of freedom of thought and action to the kids. Hence you cannot afford to be strict with them unless you have established a rapport with the child and the child realizes and understands the logic behind your words and actions.

More than the Kids themselves the parents are more interesting. Some want their kids to draw like they did and others want their kids to draw as they themselves cant. Definitely the expectation from the drawing teacher in both cases are different. But as a drawing teacher how do I handle both scenarios? The way I handle such situations is by focusing on the child itself, as the common goal of both genre of parents is to see their child produce a work of art eventually.

Every child has its own areas of strengths and weaknesses. I have a student who cannot draw vertical objects like houses and trees, they always tend to slant to one side in the drawings, but when she paints her creation she does it like no one else does. The innocence of a child's work of art should never be spoilt by erasing what they do and by making it more perfect. Again there is a thin line between correction and perfection. As a drawing teacher I tend to correct their drawings more than making it perfect. Children feel happier when they are guided to draw their images in the correct way instead of the perfect way.

The entire concept of perfection is very situational in art work and it has its own place and must not be expected everywhere. Another child in my school loves to introduce his own ideas into his paintings which I really encourage. Parents usually find it bizzare but come on how many of us have seen children with imaginative ideas at the age of 4 - 6 years. Imagination is the chariot of creation. Without imagination it is difficult to be creative.

Some children find to keep their colors within lines. They love to be fast with their coloring and finish their painting superfast. Such children can be easily guided to move towards abstract art and must be guided more on color compositions. In abstract art its the feeling of the creator at the time of creating the artwork that is expressed in colors. Many parents think of MF Hussain when I mention the word abstract :). Actually it is not as difficult as they think. They raise their doubts thinking their child is too young for something like what Mr. Hussain does. But the whole idea is bring the childs expression in form of colors and medium on to the canvas.

Some parents cannot accept the fact that the child is drawing for lesser time than what they are paying the fees for. Let us understand that we are talking about children who have just ventured into the world of art and it will take time for them to understand that there are so many interesting things for them out there waiting to be explored. It is during this period of self discovery that they lose focus and tend to get distracted. During this period if the teacher or the parent tries to force the child to sit down and draw he might lose his interest in the subject forever. Recently I read about Farhan Akhtar's Music venture in TOI where in he mentioned how he loved music when he was young and how his parents got him a harmonium and a classical music teacher which took him away completely from music as he never enjoyed it. "ENJOY" yes thats the part thats important for every child to gain interest in anything thats new for him/her.

Please note that whatever I have spoken about is completely my views on the subject and can differ from teacher to teacher and from parent to parent.

"Unbeleivable" is what I said to myself after what the video showed. But like the resonance of a Budhist bell the whole idea kept on ringing back and forth in my mind. I had quit my job and had lot of aspirations to do everything that I have not been able to do during my busy office schedules. Painting, working for NGO, setting up a balcony garden are all just few to name. But gradually when things were not falling in place as expected, I started losing hope but still i was not repenting of having quit my job. It was just that there were too many dreams to fulfill.

I set up an Art & Craft School along with an old friend of mine and started doing fairly well but still was far from feeling satisfied as I wanted to start it at my place as well and it was just not happening as setting up a school requires lot of publicity and the only advertising and marketing I was doing was online. Obviously the response was poor. I gradually started getting a feel of despair because now I was traveling more than 20kms to teach drawing to only 5 students.

I was almost on the verge of giving up and thats when I spotted Rhoda Bryne's The Power on sale at Sapna Book House. It was as if i had found the key to a casket that day. When the casket opened one by one things started falling in place. I would read one chapter of The Power every week and practise it religiously.

Beleive it or not, today I have a total count of 50 students and I am also a part of an NGO Samridhdhi Trust something that I was not being able to do as I do not speak the local language. I guess there is some kind of positive energy that children get to feel from me that they give me their love unconditionally. So today here I am,  A Happy Dreamer.

I make sure that I give my bit back to the society by working for the NGO and also contributing to their funds through whatever I earn by teaching art to these young minds.