Last Sunday all my day just passed in thinking, cherishing about every moment of the previous day, the day when we celebrated our dear friend Parnavi’s birthday.

It was a very memorable day, and its due credit goes to none other than Parnavi. Who cared to tell about all our likes and dislikes at her home, who made all the preparations.

The food was delectable, tasty and something whose taste’s going to linger on my taste buds for quite a long time for sure.

The after lunch mania was the best. We played cards, made fun of each other, as usual, clicked pictures, and troubled Omkar a lot! Sorry Omkar, but really enjoyed it then. And thanks for bearing it all :)

The cake cutting and gift giving sessions were too good. The cake even more better ;). Fortunately the cake wasn’t smeared across her face, it was, but very little. The efforts for the decorations were so high, that words going through my mind are extremely small to describe it!

Then there was a small, but highly, highly surprising magic show presented by her Dad! Kudos to him for doing it so well!

Late we did leave, but with contents at heart. With memories still very, very fresh in my mind. Thanks friends and all those dear people who had a part, maybe small in making this day the most memorable day of my life.

PS: Rina you should’ve been there! You missed out a lot.

DON'T RUN AWAY!

Recently there’s news that the Maharashtra state board is announcing a new pattern in Mathematics of the 9^th standard. The students will get options, as in what type of mathematics they would like to opt for, either easy or difficult. It seems the difficult option will have the tougher subjects from the previous portion, might be some additional, and same in the case for easier papers.

I still remember that particular instance of my life, which coincidentally, I’d to face in my 9^th standard, and in mathematics itself. I was an average student, studied only during exams. If I’d put in lots of hard-work it showed in the result. I still remember in the first semester I’d scored really badly in mathematics, especially in algebra. I was told if I get a bad score in my coming algebra test in my coaching classes I wouldn’t be allowed to sit any further lectures. Imagining the situation was most difficult for me, so I’d studied real hard, and as fake as it may sound I’d scored full, it was a test on the topic of logarithms.

Moral of the story is right in front of you, if you don’t let the students face a difficult situation, they’ll never learn, especially if given an option of running away. Just in the race for scoring more, students will try to go for the easier route. The school level mathematics isn’t something out of the world, it’s quite basic. If I wouldn’t have done logarithms then, would calculations have been as easy as they are for me now?

Talking about students having dyscalculia [fear of math], do you want the students to run away from the phobia, instead of facing it? If hard work leads to a full score for an average student, then a student with dyscalculia might easily get a decent score with even effort, or might even come over the dreaded phobia. It is surely much better than chickening out of the situation. Oh! But how did I forget in that case the score, or rather the average percentage won’t be enough, and people won’t get to show off!

Let’s hope that such a rule is not imposed, or rather, such an option is not given to students. And if given, students chose to face their fears