My Kids' Tests!!

My kids are having Stanford Tests now, even my kindergartener. It is good that they are being tested, but the problem is that we , as parents, never get to know what they are tested in, how they fare, as there is no system of question papers and no answer scripts. All we get to see is the report card. Being from india, and having studied there, I find this very weird. How are we to judge the progress of our kids just by the homeworks they do?!

Atleast for my 5th grader,Soumya, it is good that all her homwwork is marked, and the weekly class tests are sent back home.And till date she has always got staright 'A' s in all subjects every year. Touchwood!But for my Kindergartner,Shreya, I don't get to know what they are teaching(of course they hardly teach much in K). And there is no homework, except the occasional small projects, and there are no weekly tests, no monthly tests either.So how do I know how her progress is, till I see the report card. And then the report card just says the grades they got..... not what is tested.I mean I don't get to know the questions or the method of their testing.

Well, like my husband says, nobody put a gun to our head to come into this country, we came for our career progress. But sometimes, I feel that the kids are missing the strong education that is there in India. Being a teacher myself, I shouldn't be saying this, but it is very true that the standard of education here till the 10th grade is very very low, and then all of a sudden, it is so very tough that , we find a lot of dropoffs after 10th!

Basic thing missing is competitive spirit.As ,though there are report cards coming home after such tests, only the parents know, none of the other kids get to know the grades or marks the other kids got. So where is the question of competition? No comepetitive spirit whatsoever.

It is true that when we were kids we detested the very idea of tests and exams, but then now, looking back I feel that ,that is what it should be. If there are no tests, then there is no competitive spirit. There has to be a fear of detention, only then will the kid study good to go to the next class. Of course, sorry to say that even in India now, they have banned detention and everybody gets to go to the next class till 7th grade and then there is a state exam in 7th, and again in 10th.This is basically because of the illeteracy in India. So now atleast there would be minimum leteracy, they think.

Slumdog Millionaire

'Slumdog'-I hate that word!! Why should anybody living in slums, any poor person be called dogs.Deregatory indeed! Having said this, I should give credit to the writer who wrote this novel and aptly named it Q & A. Vikas Swarup, the indian diplomat, the only Indian who won the Boeke prize ( South african award modelled on UK's Booker prize) for the book, did write the story good.He also won the Paris book fair's Reader's Prize.

His characterisation of the protogonist (the main character),Ram Mohammad Thomas was much better than the 'Jamal Malik' of Slumdog Millionaire.Of course, it is very difficult to picturize the words in a book....

I have been arrested. For winning a quiz show.

They came for me late last night, when even the stray dogs had gone off to sleep. They broke open my door, handcuffed me and marched me off to the waiting jeep with a flashing red light.

There was no hue and cry. Not one resident stirred from his hut. Only the old owl on the tamarind tree hooted at my arrest.

Arrests in Dharavi are as common as pickpockets on the local train. Not a day goes by without some hapless resident being taken away to the police station.


Dev Patel did act good in the lead role, and the main essence of the book was a lot intact in the movie, than the other books made into movies like 'Namesake' which was so badly made into a movie....

Ananya-Unique!

ANANYA! What a sweet name which means so much, for my little niece. She is as unique for all of us as her name. Just like me, she too would have number one as her role number at school.... Her name starts with 'a' and ends with 'a' just like mine.I seem to be more excited than anybody else in the family. I don't know why but I don't remember being so excited even about my two daughters surprisingly!! Maybe, it is because she is another girl after me in my Dad's family having the same maiden name!!