adhunika blog

As I walked into the preschool classroom I see two boys in the block area building a structure. To respect the privacy of the children, I will call them A and B. The boys are about four years old. While building the structure, A trips over a block that was on the floor, falls and cries. B takes a look and continues building. The teacher comes along comforts the child. While I was observing, I could not help but to question my mind, are we teaching children to be more caring? How can we teach empathy to our kids?

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There are many things in my life that I dread doing, and public speaking is one them, I can come up with every possible ‘excuse’ to convince myself why I cannot do it and why I should avoid it at any cost. In school when I had no choice but to speak in class for presentation (as my grade depended on it), I would just talk fast and finish the presentation in few minutes; I can take any challenge behind the scene, but feel uneasy when the limelight is on me. I am always awed by people who can speak eloquently in a big group, they all seem to know what to say, when to say it and how much, I don’t think I can ever do that, I can never be that articulate,  …see how convinced I am.    

So, why would someone like me would commit to go and speak in a university, especially when that university is no other than Harvard? Because, when I gave my commitment to be at a conference there to speak I was in euphoria from reading an email from a friend who has been instrumental to Adhunika. She wrote me, how much she was inspired by being involved with Adhunika and she wanted me to go the event and join the panel, as she wanted to share that inspiration with rest of the people.  When I read those magical words, ‘I am inspired by being involved with Adhunika and want to share that inspiration with others’ – before I thought of anything else I wrote back to her – ‘Count me in’. But, when the day of the event started approaching I started loosing all the excitement and I kept asking myself why did I say I would participate, but then I didn’t want to let my friend down, so I kept my promise.

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While I was browsing through the net the following article by Shayera Moula caught my eyes, I thought it was funny and witty, and wanted to share with our readers, enjoy. 

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The Ten Commandments for Bengali girls: Brace yourselves 

That’s right ladies, it’s here and it’s in written form for the first time; so you better frame it up because following these commandments will make everyone proud of you. I mean EVERYONE, well except perhaps you yourself. But who cares about that right? I mean from physical appearance to the role of a perfect mother and wife, from educational background to a dynamic career woman and from a ‘good’ young girl to an even better woman, all of it has to be there. The color of the skin, the way you behave with others…the list never really ends! So here you go. You know all this so you also know that no one is protesting.

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