So Jispa is living my freaking dream. Ok… sorry Jasmine, OUR
freaking dream. The joker is in Germany for an exchange program. It’s not
really an exchange program but it’s a vacation in the form of an exchange
program. They will stay at a school hostel and attend school for a few days but
are not really completely living with a German family for a few weeks and
attending school and all that. But hell. It’s still an exchange program. I
wanted to go for an exchange program when I was small.
I remember seeing something like that in the papers about a
free exchange program and wanting to join. I sent the letter and the papers and
everything and when I got an invite (or just before or something), I saw that
you have to pay for your air fare. The air fare to US in those days was around
a 100 thousand rupees, which was way above what I could definitely afford. Also
I had to pay for small incidental expenses etc. I think it was a period of 1
year where I could study and stay with a family there. Or was it one month? I
don’t know. But what I do know is that obviously my dad wouldn’t pay that
amount and I was in India with a broken dream. I am not sure if I was upset
with dad. I think not. I think I was in this respect at least, quite
understanding.
We knew money was at a premium and that dad was at home
after his heart attack and that we were trying to run the family on investments
and a children’s nursery that my mom ran. It was a nice and popular nursery –
Angel’s Nursery. It generated quite a bit of income for the family when we
needed it the most. I remember my brother and me being taken by dad on his
scooter (with a side car attached) to the various localities and catchment
areas and going door to door and stuff pamphlets in the letter boxes and doors.
I remember liking the job and quite enjoying the experience. It was invariably
on the vacation before the school season for new admission starts.
So I do understand not being sent for this vacation. Right
now, with the new house and the 6 months that we had without one of the houses
on rent and the Chembur gymkhana membership and all… we are pretty broke.
Jasmine and me and wondering and calculating the money in the bank accounts.
It’s fun. Luckily I am not stressed as much. I have been through much worse. At
least here I am asset rich and cash poor. So when the Germany trip came in, we
still said yes, knowing that we will figure it out.
I stopped taking stress on a lot of issues. We will figure
it out as we get along life. Jasmine and I discuss that Jispa is young and atleast
she should enjoy. It is difficult for all three to go but at least one can go
and see it. She is going to Germany, see Nuremberg where the trails were held
after WW2 and she is going to Salsberg in Austria. Oh freak. She is completely
living my dream. But I am not complaining.
The joker that Jispa is, is not understanding that these are
our dreams. I have told her to send pics and talk to us and describe things to
us. Share the experience with us. But she is not likely to do so. She likely to
go there and act all secretive and at best we will get her experience from her
Instagram feed. Such an ass she is. Possibly when she is 30 or possibly 40,
when she reads this post, she will realise what a pain she was.
Dreams are funny things and when you mix parenting with them,
they can get potent, liberating and restricting at the same time. We parents
have to balance it and Jispa has to balance it. She can’t do something or not
do something because of us, but we expect her to do or not do because of us.
What is right and what is wrong? There is no right and wrong, there is only
tension. Tension as opposites reconcile. This tension makes the job
interesting, painful, memorable and rewarding. No tension no fun.
Last weekend a kid came home. I had taught her 8 years ago.
She came for gyan and advice and chit chat. She had remained in touch, on and
off I must have met her after 8 years. It was damn cute. There was the tension
of me being her teacher but also the tension of now being a peer in some way.
Yesterday I was super proud as well. It always happens when
a kid I have taught comes home and spends time with us and asks for advice.
This one was from the current batch I taught.
She and her friend decided to start a cold brew coffee company focusing on really
authentic cold brews. She came over for advice and to get me to taste her
coffee. It was seriously awesome coffee and I really enjoyed it. Since she wasn’t
taking money for the coffee, I made her my special paneer burjee… and then we
fed her icecream and we showed her how to make caramel sauce etc. At the end
Jasmine and I sat with her and played a few card games. It was so much fun. I
know I am some time away from retirement but then this what I would love to do
when I retire. Talk to old friends and students, play cards, talk marketing,
give free advice and take free coffee from them. It’s the best combo ever.
Teaching has given more joy than anything else. That it
helped me improve my speech delivery and improved the basics of what I teach is
secondary. The joy that I get when these kids reach out to me, talk to me and
give me the love and respect that have for me. It is invaluable. This why I teach
and this why I cannot give up. I have made teaching a fine art of teaching
logic, concepts and stand up foolery. Just this week I was to give a 12 minute
talk on techmarketing at a forum. I did not quite know beforehand what I wanted
to speak about but a few days before the talk, I wrote down 20 concepts that
would be important to digital marketers as they try to go upon their journey.
These are from my personal experience and could be quite controversial or plain
different, depending upon the context.
I knew I was good, but suddenly 5 minutes into the talk I started
having fun and I started enjoying myself on stage. My stand-up routine started
and I started having a load of fun. In the end I was short of time and I started
doling out advice in rapid fire mode and the tempo went up and up and up and I was
talking as fast as I could. It was serious fun. I have never before had so much
fun on stage ever. And the stage was a big one! It going to be telecast on TV
later. Here is the not so telecast quality of the same. In 24 hours it already
has got more than 500 views. I was on fire! It was an important high point in
my professional life so far. Not because I gave gyan on stage. I have done so
many times before, but never have I enjoyed it so much. And never before have I
done it like this, pushing the limits of my irreverence combined with
intelligence and experience. Full time pass.
Here see the full video here.
I really enjoyed this. At first I had put the word f*#@king
in every slide. Trying to make an impact. There is an extra alphabet there just
for you to know that the word isn’t what you were thinking of but a more
politically correct FREAKING. Then the sponsors raised a few valid questions
and were urging me to be prudent. I agreed and I sent them one with all of them
deleted. As luck would have it, they played the original slides at first and I had
to gently remind them on stage. Suddenly as I ran through the presentation,
they smartly changed the presentation and the result was that in the middle all
the sanitized slides came on. I guess the impact was made. Social was abuzz with the F*#@KING presentation and the
points I raised. Alls well that ends well.
