Daily Prompt : Lifestyle

In response to daily post’s one-word prompt : Lifestyle

Today’s prompt takes me back to my childhood. We used to live in a large house of course it was rented, nevertheless it was large, if we or my dad was able to pay the rent, we were looked upon  by the vendors who came by to sell their wares to have a certain lifestyle.

One morning my second older brother came out of the house in his clumsy clothes. The vegetable vendor, thought he was one of the servants, he addressed him, ‘hey naukar, Begum sahib kahan hai?’ (hey servant where is Begum Sahib?)

My poor brother was so embarrassed he dashed inside the house, he changed his outfit immediately and went out. The vendor was waiting, when he saw my brother in his changed outfit, he realized my brother was not a servant, and instantly apologized for thinking him a servant.

In our part of the world you are judged by what you wear, it’s taken for granted prosperous people do not dress casually. If one happens to forget his status, the vendors or others will automatically think you must be a servant in that particular house, especially if it happens to be one which has twelve rooms and a large garden with a gardener.

I was never too keen about how I dressed, as a result people  made comparisons between me and my sister. I did not care if my sari and blouse did not match, comparatively my sister made sure everything she wore matched from head to her feet, and if she carried an umbrella it had to match her outfit.

…………………………………………. 🙂

 

DP Daily Prompt: Envelope Pushers

When was the last time you took a risk(big or small), and pushed your own boundaries– socially,professionally, or otherwise? Were you satisfied with the outcome? A few years ago my daughter and I were invited to a get-together party in a friend’s house. There were a lot of people there, food was served I was waiting my turn to get some food, my daughter was ahead of me, when she was about to get the food, one of our old acquaintance stopped her and asked  some unexpected questions. I knew nothing about it until we were ready to get into the car, my daughter told me about it and made up her mind never to attend these parties. I was angry, this person always looks for an opportunity to embarrass us. When we got home I dialed his number, he was not at home, I left a message to call me next morning, when my call wasn’t returned by 9 am, I called again, I was firm I told him he must never harass me or my daughter in the presence of strangers. I reminded him if there was anything he wanted to know , he should ask me directly. He tried to make excuses for his behavior but I did not let him. The same person has been doing this kind of irritating thing since we met him, I attempted to stop him, my husband would not let me. This time I felt he had crossed the limit I must prevent him from being a jerk. I was satisfied with the outcome, I was never bothered by him again! k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/dp-daily-prompt-

365 Writing Prompts:We can be taught

What makes a teacher great?

Before I try to write what makes a great teacher, I’m eager to find out, who deserves to be a teacher?

With the above question in my mind I went about reading different people’s notion of evil and good, it breaks my heart to think these so called educated people, have given their verdict on who is evil, according to them some children are born evil.

When a child is born, he/she comes with a clean slate, they are at the mercy of their parents, guardians or others who take care of him/her. Can you honestly say that this child is evil, if you do, it means God has poured all the evil genes in him before sending him to earth, who else would you think, because the people on earth didn’t get a chance  to make him evil,it was taken care of by the creator.

For starters my feeling is people who have a twisted mind like this should not be allowed in the teaching profession.

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to become a teacher, one must have proper education on how to deal with a pupil or student.

I also know what one learns in education seldom helps in teaching, one learns as he or she begins a career in teaching. I am thinking how I learned the art of teaching, it wasn’t educational Psychology,history of education, none of these things I learned, prepared me for teaching. It was by stepping into a classroom, my how to teach began.

I remember it was the second year of my teaching, I had taken a job in a local “Residential model school, in Bangladesh,” I asked a few questions to my colleague, I noticed she always changed the subject, it became evident she did not want to transfer her knowledge to me.

I wasn’t scared I knew I can learn on my own by watching the kids.It was my first day in that school, there were forty-two boys in my class, they were six year old rambunctious kids, One of them came up to me and said,”You are our sixth teacher in two months.”

Like Julie Andrews in ‘Sound of Music, I quietly thought what’s wrong with these kids?

I found that out soon enough, when the recess bell rang, I heard a loud roar within seconds the boys were out of the class in the playground noisily jumping and running. They were I assume thinking, ‘how long will she stay with us?’

After recess they all came in like a bunch of ruffians eager to see what I may have to offer. I did nothing that day.The following day after assigning their work for the first two periods, I looked at my time to find out when will the bell  ring for recess, when I saw there were only five minutes left,I got the attention of the boys and made a very firm announcement, I said, “the recess bell will ring after five minutes, if any one stands up before I say so, you will not have recess.”

There was pin drop silence each looked at the other, the bell rang they stayed glued in their seats, I looked at them and told them to stand up, they were to remain silent and leave the room one row at a time. The boys were quiet and did as I asked.

From that day onward I had no trouble with them, they did not dislike me on the contrary they liked me a lot.

I still cannot answer the question what makes a teacher great, I think loving one’s job, loving the kids one teaches, and be firm when needed. Children like discipline, it doesn’t mean take a stick in your hand and demand good behavior, trust me it does not work.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/365-writing-pr…-can-be-taught

Writing Prompt: Morphing

Language evolves.The meaning of a word can shift over time as we use it differently–think of “Cool”,”heavy”,or even ” literally”.Today give a word an evolutionary push: give a common word a new meaning,explain it to us ,and use it in the title of your post.

Morphing the word:  “Color” or British spelling, “Colour”

Let me use the word color as the word, I’d like to give   a push. I know you will say but we know that one already, I’ve tried to think of other words, but they’re not any different,they are morphed into shreds, so my thought is to see if I can really do something with it.

Sally and Sangita were two best friends. They met each other in kindergarten, one day Sally’s mom visited their school,apparently Sally forgot to take her lunch for school, her mom was worried she took her daughter’s lunch on her way to work. She parked her car in the parking lot, and went in to her daughters classroom, she noticed her daughter was busy doing her work, sitting beside her kid was Sangita. She raised her hand to get Sally’s attention who was busy showing something to her friend. Sangita noticed this lady didn’t know who she was but could see she was trying to get Sally’s attention, she gave her friend a gentle push and pointed to the lady waiting by the door. Sally was thrilled to see her mother, she asked her teacher’s permission to go and talk to her mother.

Mom looked a bit concerned,  “what is it she asked her Mom?” 

Mom was lost in her thoughts, Sally repeated her question, her mom looked perturbed, without further delay she questioned her daughter,”who is that colored girl sitting next to you?”

“Colored she repeated, her name is Sangita , it’s not Colored, mom, Sangita is her name.” 

“Why did you think her name is colored, it’s such a weird name tell me  mom she inquired.”

Mom was in serious trouble, how can she explain to her daughter why she called her Colored.

The following weeks were troublesome for the poor mom, she tried to tell her daughter a colorful story, the daughter wasn’t satisfied, this caused a lot of tension between the mom and daughter.

Mom had no choice but to explain, while she was making up another story her face turned purple, Sally noticed immediately,she exclaimed, “Mom your face is changed to a purple color, now I know why you called Sangita, Colored, perhaps her face was changing into all different colors and you thought her name is, Colored.”

Children are innocent by nature, it is we who confuse them by our behavior.

Permalink: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/05/10/writing-prompt-morphing/ 

 

 

 

DP Daily Prompt: In the Summertime

Theoretically,summer will return to the polar-vortex-battered Northern Hemisphere. What are you looking forward to doing this summer? If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, what are your fondest memories of summer past?

Unfortunately I am living in the northern hemisphere and am anxiously waiting for summer,which still looks as though it is taking its time to show itself because our behavior is less than desirable. Why you ask, we are not recycling as we should, we are making it look as if every space visible is a huge garbage can, we own too many cars per family and are the cause of pollution. We are too lazy to throw our used coffee cups in the designated areas,we ignore it and throw it on the spot where we had our coffee. We’ve been warned but we ignore the signs.

 

When summer decides to show up, I am planning to get every bit of stuff I am not using and making my house look like a junk yard, donate  to citizens who might find better use for them. 

My garden needs a thorough clean up and perennials would be sorted out, if they need to be thinned out then I’ll do that and not strangle them by overcrowding . The trees and shrubs need pruning, since I won’t be able to do this job,I’d hire the right people to take care of it.

Summer is the best time to get things done outdoors,which is what I plan to do.

When everything looks half decent I might take a trip near my home.I think I have written how I am going to utilize the summer months,hopefully it’ll appear without any further delay!

 

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