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

MORE THAN A MONTH!!!!!

I just can’t believe it’s been more than a moth since the last time I wrote a post. I am really sorry for this delay. I just couldn’t take out the time.

In fact the last few weeks and moths I’d lot more to write like the first rain, the first day of college, and things like that. But just couldn’t find the time. Then I’d a troubled eye, so advised not to use the computer for long, so this delay. But it’s long than I’d thought.

This means I’d really been busy. And I’m going to get busier with my practical session starting. It’s good to know that my life’s changed considerably, in fact it’d changed just from the next weeks, and even in my internship I made new friends, and had a lot of fun. I’ve started missing them already. But my college life’s even better.

The only thing bad thing about me getting busy is that I’ve got morning practical. Agreed it’s difficult for a nocturnal person like me to wake up early, but not impossible. I know I’ll manage as I’ve been all these years, big thanks for my Parents for that. Who wake me up and help me get ready on time.

I hope I don’t be late with the next post. And find time to write something much better. Till then have a nice time.

WAKE ME UP!!!!!!!!

Weary and tired I look at the watch after around an hour or so, only to find the hand of the clock shifted by a minute, as if some spell has hold on to it. I try to take a nap, and I wake up with a jerk, due to the noise made by the H.O.D. entering.

He asks if the tests are done, and we give him all the values entered neatly in the register, basically doing our work perfectly. Again a call and he’s gone. There my mind shut again, and the next thing, loose ends of many thoughts in my head, I think about one thing, and unknowingly start thinking of something else.

Again I jerk the sleep off my eyes, rather just try. Then suddenly Greenday’s song which I’d heard while on my way to the industry starts playing in my head, “wake me up when September ends”. And the great feeling of college starting soon filled me. And somehow these two threads got connected, and I said aloud “wake me up when 9^th June arrives”. The roaring giggles of my friends made me realize that my head was coming up with combinations worse than BINGO [I don’t like those chips].

I feel staying at home would have been a better option. I could’ve learnt cartoon network’s daily schedule, I would have been online most of the time of the day, except when the MSEDCL does its ruthless act of cutting the connection, giving it a heavy name like LOADSHEDDING. I would have lost on the ways to Morodor. I would have some up with my signature recipes.

A nightmare coming true in real sense, might not be scary, adrenalin rushing [I wish it was], but full of nothingness. All I can do is go into hibernation and wake up only after 7^th of June.

BACK WITH A BANG er......SNEEZE

After a long week I’m back. I’d been to my hometown. I’d gone there after 3 years that was after I’d finished my 10^th board examinations. It was a real good change for my mind. It was at peace. The beauty has really soothed my nerves after a hectic week of working in Parle Company. I did everything that I wished to, enjoyed to the full extent. The results were bad, aching legs, sun burnt skin, but I do not regret it even a bit. Had lots of mangoes, so many that I don’t feel like having any more till next summer. The best part of all the vacations was the beach and the WAVES…enchanting!!!!! I felt like screaming whenever I saw them, and I couldn’t stop it, nor did I try to. Hats off to my grandfather whose 100^th birthday we celebrated. He wasn’t frustrated with the noise and fuss at all! Long live grandpa!! After a nice week I come back at my Home, it feels like woken up suddenly from a pleasant dream, a dream I can see once again. Now I’ve got to gear up and be a Mumbaikar again. My mind can be geared up easily but my body can’t

as soon as I reached Home I started sneezing and it is going on! But honestly speaking this cold has become a part of my life, if I don’t catch cold within a month I wonder if I have any problem. Still it’s better to be fit and fine. I hope I get well soon. I think you’ll hope for the same

REUNIONS!!!!!

The Oxford Dictionary defines a reunion as a social gathering of people who have not seen each other for some time. But is it just that, just meeting up?

I used to think so, but now I’ve realized it’s not just meeting up, it means, meeting up with friends you really mean to meet, whom you miss a lot. And even after you meet just asking “wassup??” isn’t enough. Talking about the past, the fun we had together, the pranks played on people, the most stupid secret or just the silly reason for getting scolded makes a successful reunion. Such reunions are beautiful, you just don’t want the time to tick off…But as clichéd as it may sound, time doesn’t wait for anyone. We just have to return home, hoping for the next reunion to be as soon as possible!!!

THE QUEST OF EIGHTEEN!!!!

I call it as the quest of 18, because when I was not 18 then I used to wonder why is 18 given so much of an importance and why not nineteen which by it’s ending –teen should be preferably given much importance? I used to wonder why does the band Creed have a song “I’m eighteen; I get confused everyday, eighteen I just don’t know what to say”.

But now I’ve realized it, when I’ve finally reached the age EIGHTEEN!!!!!! I’ve reached this age in November and since then till now really my mind works a lot, more than it should on matters, not so important. And then I wonder why in the first place was I thinking about it?

There is a constant fight within; I just don’t know how many personalities reside inside me! I become highly unpredictable, at times surprising the angel within, and at times the devil.

Sometimes it’s just the urge to be like everyone else, sometimes the heart just wishes to go against the trend! Sometimes there is a feeling of being a teacher’s pet, sometimes of being a total punk. Sometimes I want to be a drama queen; sometimes I prefer the back stage. Sometimes I want crowd around me, sometimes I just want to be lonely in my room!

And on all that when I try to see what I am exactly like, through some silly know yourself quizzes, I feel like selecting all the options given….??? Eventually confusing me more than I am already!

Then I wonder why in the first place am I thinking of all this, when I’ve better things in life to think about? Like, how my internship in companies like Cadbury and Shangrila will be, or how I enjoyed my stay at my friend’s place!

But that’s what your brain does when you are EIGHTEEN!!!! Before you are EIGHTEEN you wonder why it’s given so important, after you are EIGHTEEN you just wonder, why are you doing, whatever that is being done! And after EIGHTEEN maybe I’ll think why I did this, or did not do this when I was EIGHTEEN? Thus carrying on the quest of EIGHTEEN till eternity!

Monosodium glutamate, safe or not?

I heard that M.S.G. is GOOD for health apart from being safe. I tried to know what exactly M.S.G is, and I’ve come to a conclusion that I’ll try to avoid it as much as possible.

Monosodium glutamate, sodium glutamate, flavor enhancer 621 [M.S.G] is a sodium salt of glutamic acid. It is marketed as flavor enhancer. The Japanese company Ajinomoto turned it into crystalline powder form, MSG, and patented it in 1909, hence the name Ajinomoto [essence of taste].

The controversy over MSG started in 1968, when a Chinese-American physician wrote a rather lighthearted letter to The New England Journal of Medicine. He had experienced numbness, palpitations and weakness after eating in Chinese restaurants in the United States, and wondered whether the monosodium glutamate used by cooks here (and then rarely used by cooks in China) might be to blame. This was experienced by many people consuming such food and hence it was also known as CHINESE RESTAURANT SYNDROME.

It interferes with the neurochemical process. It is an exciter neurotransmitter i.e. it excites the taste buds into thinking the food is GREAT, even if the taste is not that good. It also messes with your satiety index (how full you think you are after eating) so that you end up wanting to eat more food, it also leads to behavioral addiction to that food. And overeating is linked to obesity, so let’s just try our best to stay away from it.

Higher doses of MSG lead to cell death, by over excitation of nerve cells. It is due to the absence of the blood brain barrier in hypothalamus of humans. Between 1980 and 1994, the Adverse Reaction Monitoring System in FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition received 622 reports of complaints about MSG. Headache was the most frequently reported symptom. No severe reactions were documented, but some reports indicated that people with asthma got worse after they consumed MSG. In some of those cases, the asthma didn't get worse until many hours later.

The glutamic acid we eat isn’t always natural. In our body L-type is found, whereas glutamic acid we consume is D-glutamic acid. Which is not handled by our body well, and it is prepared by fermentation since it is found in bacterial cell walls.

Some say that they do not consume M.S.G., but its forms are other than just monosodium glutamate, they are Glutamate, Monosodium glutamate, Monopotassium glutamate, Glutamic acid, Calcium caseinate, Gelatin, Textured protein, Hydrolyzed protein (any protein that is hydrolyzed), Yeast extract, Yeast food, Autolyzed yeast, Yeast nutrient. Reading the contents on the packet is necessary.

We cannot completely stop the intake but can surely avoid, and while eating food having MSG we should keep in mind that it’s just the flavor enhancer which is why it tastes so great, and we need to control the amount we eat, doing just this will actually bring a change in our health problems. The change may be small, but significant!!!!!!