Welcome June

Welcome June 

Time is running a marathon and how!!! With Jovial June setting in, 2017 has been half-way through already. Everyone is either in the mid-way towards achieving their targets or almost achieved. But!!! There are a few bunches who is feeling the excitement of a New Beginning. Confused Yet???

Yes!!! Amongst all those lucky people are the Teachers like us who are all excited to welcome our students… or how I love to call them – My BabiesJ. We have always talked about Calendar Year (Jan – Dec) or Financial Year (April – Mar) but seldom do we discuss an Academic Year (June – May). We all have lived our lives according to Academic Year in our schooling years and then branched out in own lives. But a Teacher’s life is always about an “Academic Year” or I may call it as “Marvel Year”. June marks with welcoming our children each year and we – the Teachers are all set and equipped to receive them. Each year we look forward to new class with new faces, different sounds, new pattern of expressions and many loving little ones. What a wonder it is!!

It is rightly quoted by a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of school of analytical psychology, sir Carl Jung, that, “An understanding heart is everything in a teacher.”  Though she meets 20 different human expressions each year, a teacher is someone who never fails to identify the beauty of each heart and uniqueness of each little soul. She’s the one who thinks about her children, breathes the time spent with them and sleeps over her planning for the next day. In my past 11 years of being an educator myself, I have observed a remarkable change in a teacher’s persona. A 21^st Century teacher has evolved herself from only being a teacher to a ‘thinker who teaches and touches’. Today’s teacher is the one who connects to a human heart through her tender smile and lets her teaching flow automatically.

Teaching-learning in 21^st century and further is evolving more towards creating human connections by deepening emotional attachments. In his Harvard Business Review article, “Three Ways Leaders Make Emotional Connections”, Scott Edinger suggests three ways leaders can forge emotional connections:

·  Give people your undivided attention. When talking to someone, don't be simultaneously checking emails, surfing the internet, or reading a memo.

·  Be aware that emotions are contagious. "Whether positive or negative, your emotional state has a significant influence on those you work with, especially when you are the boss."

·  Develop your sense of extraversion. "If you're a leader, you simply must develop the ability to reach out to others, engage them in discussion, and actively provide feedback. You're the one who has to be out in front, taking the lead in developing these relationships."

So at the onset of anew ‘Marvel Year’, with a heart full of pride, let us promise to evolve ourselves to Teachers who are Leaders and commit towards nurturing Tomorrow’s Leaders.

From one Educator’s Heart to every Educators' Hearts J

Janki Patel

Woman's Day : Celebrating the feminine essence !!!

Today, as we, the lovely ladies across the world come together to celebrate ‘Woman’s Day’, thoughts are rushing up in my mind like a gamut of mixed emotions. Reflecting and analyzing further the emotions created by the thoughts gives me a feeling of power and beauty both together and in equality. Power, which means authority and an ability to control things, a left-brain function, is basically masculine in nature whereas emotions and feelings, expression of inner being, a right – brain function, is so feminine in nature. Thus word ‘WOMAN’ itself is a combination of masculine and feminine characteristics. 

Our Indian mythology and culture has always portrayed and worshiped the importance of ‘Woman’ in the form of ‘SHAKTI’ since the beginning. SHAKTI – as the name suggests, has always been empowering, inspiring and facilitating mankind since generations as a mother, sister, wife, friend, beloved, teacher and counselor and this is a known fact since ages.

I would like to share a beautiful quote that I happened to read in the last few days. "The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities both of body and mind. But the balance is already shifting; force is losing its dominance, and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy. Hence the new age will be an age - less masculine and more permeated with the feminine ideals, or, to speak more exactly, will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will be more evenly balanced." - Abdu'l-Baha

As I read this quote, an instant reaction which popped up my mind was – this is the real meaning of “WOMAN DAY – it is a WO-MAN’s DAY”. A day which should be celebrated not only by the lovely ladies but also by the generous gentlemen, who, in the last few decades have adapted to a few characteristics of their female counterparts. Being an educator, everyday I get to observe this winds of change where Daddy’s are also balancing their roles right from changing diapers to dropping children at the school to attending PTMs and what not !!!

I believe that the real essence of Woman’s Day is not about celebrating being a woman but about celebrating the strengths and virtue of feminine character. On this Woman’s Day, let us come together to celebrate liberation in thoughts and strength in our nature as women rather than running the race to prove that we are equal to men. Because - being feminine in nature and thoughts is the greatest attribute that can serve mankind and it can be achieved by anyone with a gentle heart J

My Quest

My Quest

Yesterday I found myself looking upto questions like Who am i? Where do i come from? Whom do i belong to? Who shall i be associated with? Why am i here? What am i supposed to be like? What should i do so that i fulfill my purpose? How should i do it?

So many questions keep on popping up in my mind all the time when i think about "Me", a mere 2 letter word... simplest form of sight words taught in kindergarten, a word which is the foundation of learning in pre-school years. So simple yet so complicated... The meaning is easy but difficult to understand...

To make my quest a little easier, i asked myself where do i belong? Hoping that this will make it easy for me to understand that who i am. Am i the regular happening, party goer, chilled out kinda girl or am i the career oriented, ambitious, modern, aspiring woman or am i a traditional, cultured, obedient girl or am i an unconventional, spiritual person??? So many questions about Me but yet to find an answer...

There are some days when I feel that I belong to things that I like doing and then there are days when I believe that I belong to things that I want to become. Some moments I feel that my past experiences define me and in the other moments I feel I am defined by the design that I have created of my future. Sometimes I derive recognition about self by the people whom I am associated with and other times people who come to me to sort their problems help me understand myself better. I am sure everyone reading this can somewhere relate to these lines. 

When one sets onto the path of discovering self, zillion thoughts of such kinds crosses one's mind continuously. However, facing such thoughts isn’t difficult but the ability to decode the clue behind each thought is.

Just as I started screening each thought and decode them, I felt as if why do I need to decide who I am? Why do I need to belong to anything? Why should I be like something? The answer was simple to understand but difficult to live. So many times in our lives we forget to ‘live’ because we forget to ‘feel’. We seldom 'feel' but always 'think' because we put our heart aside and let our mind do all the working. Thoughts about competition, peer pressure, social pressure, goals, aspirations, future, career, social status and likes always haunts our mind. We do stop our heart from feeling the admiration for others behind the feeling of competition, we overlook friendship behind the peer pressure, we ignore the love behind social pressure, personal admiration behind goals & aspirations and hope behind future planning. Ultimately we miss out on the real emotions at the core and give importance to the end thought. 

So lets take a moment, think a little deeper, close our eyes, relish the silence because there is no way we cannot reach out our real self than reaching our own heart, ‘the place where we belong’. 

Keep Smiling and Keep Loving !!!

Birth and Re-birth: Miracles Do Happen

We have only one LIFE… We are born once and die once… Yes!!! that’s right in a normal life but my life has been different. 30^th August 2008, the day when I met with the tragic roller coaster accident, gave me a new life, I could have been dead but I was re-born.

On 30^th Aug 2008, little did I know that the afternoon hours would be one of those longest never ending ones. As I opened my eyes around 3 p.m, I was not sure about many things around me, what is going around? Where am I? Who are all these people running here and there? What is this weird feeling in my body? Why is there so much of pain in my body? Worst of all…. Why is there so much of darkness? Can anyone please switch on the lights… In a fraction of a second that I could barely open my eyes there were hundreds of thoughts crossing my mind for which I was seeking an answer. I tried to ask to my cousin sister standing to next to me but couldn’t speak, it pained… I tried to get up from the bed but I couldn’t, it pained… I wanted to ask her why is there so much pain in my body but I couldn’t, because it pained… all I did was lie down unconscious again. I could only hear her telling me, “Janu, you have met with an accident.”

After a few hours when I opened my eyes, I saw my mom weeping, I saw my 2 best friends standing near me, with tears in their eyes and an expression on their face which I had never seen before. I was still struggling with myself, trying to gain some consciousness and talk to them. My heart wanted to reach them all and say, “I know I am in pain but don’t worry I am fine but I couldn’t. With the tongue in 2 pieces I could barely speak.”

I had never imagined that I was going to experience a unique situation that would teach me one of the best lessons of life, lesson to care for my body, to choose faith over anxiety, to choose courage over fear, to choose a smile over tears. My battle of victory with myself started from then. One after the other doctors made me count my fractures, my surgeries and my stitches but something within me kept me going, instead of getting disheartened I started learning. My eyes started more observing things around, my ears heard more now and my mind started asking questions like never before. One after the other, right from a neurophysician, spine surgeon, dental surgeon, cosmetic surgeon, orthopedic surgeon and a general physician, they all visited me. With the majority of the bones broken in my body and supported externally, my real journey began right then, when instead of lamenting my heart accepted my condition, in an instant I made peace within myself.

It is rightly said, “Beautiful surprises sometimes bloom from the most tragic seeds”. I restarted my life right from learning how to walk, talk, eat and sit. I started valuing each part of my body, they were all important, very important. I realized how much dependent we are on each part of our body may it be jaws, palms, legs, teeth, spine, however big or small, each was important. Each fracture was important and was to be cured whether it was in my legs, jaws, ribs or spine. All the movements were stopped, my body was stationed but my moments with myself started. I did something which I had never done until then. I was just silent; my mind was just silent, my body didn’t move, I started experiencing the amazing Sphere of Silence which gave me peace.

I figured out that I was much stronger and courageous than I ever thought I was. I started setting targets for myself. Like seriously YES!!! I did… It was important for me to be able to sit again, stand again, eat again (my doctor’s target was to be able to eat a pani puri again), finally go back to work again. The journey made me value each member of my beautiful family and ever loving friends because it wasn’t my journey alone. Each day each night each moment…they were all besides me one after the other, taking turns out from their busy lives BUT making sure that my life gets back on track.

Finally I started taking steps in the right direction. With a strong determination in my mind and a smile on my face, I welcomed each day. I started enjoying the process of getting back to basics. I started enjoying listening to people because I couldn’t speak. Then a day came when my 1^st fracture was cured and my traction was removed, with the help of a walker I could walk on my own feet. I was happy and thankful to the Almighty to be able to do that. It was my first victory and I was excited. One after the other, I was relieved from each bandage. I started counting months and gradually days left for my freedom.

But it is rightly said, “In pain, we grow”. I had finally gotten cured of all the fractures except the one in my cervical spine C1, C2 and C3. My dream of being able to talk, walk and eat had come true, now only was the matter when I could properly sit and sleep. It was the most shocking day of my life when one of the renowned spine surgeon broke the news to me, “Janki, your treatment is over. Whatever healing had to happen, has happened. You will now have to live your entire life with the neck collar wherever you go.” I was shattered to the core, I couldn’t accept this reality and I decided  to fight. Today as I look back, I realize the power of my thoughts, power of my intentions. I started visualizing myself as a normal girl without the neck collar, happily going to places and living life and what happened after that was nothing less than a ‘MIRACLE’. The doctor who wished to close my case was astonished on my recovery, congratulated me and gave a pat on his and mine back. We Won !!! And I had grown in this process, a little on a physical level but much stronger on mental level and my life has been like never before since then.

Today as I complete 6 years of my accident, I will never forget the efforts of my family and friends who stood by me each moment, gave a boost to my spirits, devoted their time and help me get back to my life.  Life is a meant to be beautiful so lets cherish each moment. There is a purpose to each incident and each accident ;-) and we are not meant to know the reason why. It’s a process to be lived, learned and loved.

Most of all I thank my God for letting me be the ‘Chosen One’ as I lived my journey of loss and recovery.

One Life... One Chance... Spread Smiles :-)