Spending time with Siya

Since I have taken a break in my career (may be not completely), I am spending now a days lot of time with Siya and enjoying every bit thoroughly. Don't feel like getting back to work at all :-(

Why did we paint or write or dance?

Today after years I somehow felt I should start painting again! Off late, all the activities that I am doing is more on the creative side be it dancing, writing and now painting! Why do I want to paint or write or dance? What is it that gives me so much joy in doing all this? I am really not monetizing any of these (or rather I choose not to monetize) but still I am loving to spend time with these. I ask because there are a lot of people out there who would like to do painting and who are either scared, or intimidated, or simply don’t think they can do it, yet, the thought never leaves their minds…maybe they could paint? So let me take a attempt to think why do I like to dance or paint or write? I like to do all this because I like the uniqueness in it. When you think about it, writing is like painting in the sense that you use symbols to get across your thoughts. In writing, the symbols are the letters and in painting the symbols are the brushstrokes. I love to write, but today when I started to paint, I had a real different feeling. I felt the brushstrokes are more interesting, unusual, and many times more colorful. I find when I’m writing that I miss painting because I miss the different ways of creating brushstrokes that together form the art. I realized that I like analyzing the brushstrokes and coming up with different ways to create them. Also, I think 90% of me is below the surface. I never confuse the conscious, directed, purposeful 10% of me with who I really am. All of these, makes me meet myself. That is the only reason I like to paint, write or dance.

So today when I just started to draw something on the canvas, all I drew is a deserted street with a couple walking on the footpath. This is just so unlike me. I am sure every one of you will agree that Purwa is the one who would party a lot and is someone who would be surrounded by 100's of people. The painting just came out so different! Now you have to believe when I say, "I ONLY NETWORK, AND NOT SOCIALIZE". There is a difference :-)

So tell me friends, why do you paint?

How ISP helped me in bringing up Siya?

When I was expecting, I had done a 2 months session called Infant SSY Program conducted by MET Rishikul Vidhalya (recommended to me by a cousin of mine). That time, I was told that a child can be smart in more than one ways and there are more than one type of intelligence which can be very closely noted by parents based on the kind of activities the child performs, interests and abilities! The main ways children's intelligence and abilities are judged in our school systems are through their language and math skills. These are very important skills all children should learn but not the only way in which one should judge the child. Not every child is "Book Smart". Multiple intelligences are a set of different ways to look at how children (and all people) are smart and skillful. Understanding that children can be intelligent and good at different things allows you to help your child learn and succeed by seeing the world through her eyes. It can help you understand how she best shows what she knows and can do. The different types of intelligence are:
1) Visual-Spatial - They tends to solve a lot of puzzles, like drawing, have a good sense of direction
2) Verbal Linguistic - They tends to do a lot of speaking, story telling, writing, listening, having humour element in their conversations
3) Logical-Mathematical - They love problem solving, categorizing classifying, working with geometric shapes
4) Bodily-Kinesthetic - They would tend to show inclination towards dancing, sports, acting, anything requiring physical coordination, creating with hands.
5) Musical-Rythmic - They would tends to do a lot of singing, playing musical instruments, composing music
6) Inter-personal - Able to see other's point of view, listening, able to pick up on cues from others, good at forming good relations with other people, conflict resolution; good leaders
7) Intra-personal - Figuring out their own strengths and weaknesses, analyzing, understanding themselves and how they relate to others

Also, of course a child can have more than one skill and hence more than one intelligence but as parents it is very important for us to recognize them and then channelize their skills in right direction.

Siya is very much inclined towards sports, dance, skating and hence Bodily-Kinesthetic. She is also high on Inter-personal IQ (after all she is mommy's daughter). From a very young age she has been dancing and skating. She is done almost 6 shows till date (she is 5 now)! Also, as she is doing things where her skills are, it comes with her own will without any form of pressure from us. This also makes her a far stable and smart kid in school. A lot of concepts are taught to her while she is doing these activities. Like I remember talking to her about "Law of Inertia" while she was skating, talking to her about "Gravitational Force" when she is tired of climbing up 5 floors everyday, etc. She is eventually turned out to be a very smart girl and smart in more than one way!

Dance - An expression of YOURSELF, my passion!

When I go back and think, all the best moments of my life were really followed up by some form of dancing. Like when I got my SSC results, HSC results, marriages of dear ones, my marriage, when Siya was born, etc etc etc. When I was a kid, I danced in rain out of radiance and joy. We all dance in some way or the other to express ourselves. Dance is an expression of one’s self! Through dance, one tries to express one’s joy, sadness or I can say various emotions that we go through in our lives. Dance is just not dancing with your body but it is dancing with your heart, mind and soul. There was a time I really thought of making dance as my career but dance as a career is not very conventional and there is no fixed way for it. Dancers really have to struggle at physical, emotional and mental level to realize their goals and dreams. They have to keep perfecting their technique and go beyond their body limitations which require extreme mental strength. Also, dance is a limited period career, it is age that becomes the biggest obstacle in dancer's career. So I am really not ashamed to declare that I really did not have the mental strength to take this forward. Hence, in spite of being a good dancer, I decided to take a step back and concentrate on home and career. But somewhere I always felt incomplete without it.
And then comes a day when Siya was born. As she was growing, I pretty much observed her interest towards dancing. When she turned 4, the first thing I did was enrolled her for dancing lessons and from then she has been continuing the same. It is because of Siya that I got connected with dancing all over again. I decided to enroll with her for dancing lessons again. And I am having just so much fun. I was just so wrong 10 years back! Despite all these disadvantages of this career, there are many dancers still devote their lives to dance for their passion. Because they find immense pleasure and joy in pursuing it which is above all the comforts and money which any other career provides them. For them, it’s an expression of their happiness and also a way to connect with their self.
Dance today actually has provided a way with which I connect with myself. I just cannot thank Siya enough for the same. :-). Who now really cares about the age, as long as I am having fun! As long as I have the feet, I can dance! It has definitely enhanced my body language and made me much confident in non-verbal communication. It distresses me completely that I look forward to it. And realizing what I have lost 10 years back, I would not want anyone to make this mistake again. If today Siya wants to make a career in dancing, I would surely encourage her and make sure she enjoys it fully!

Serenity - Is it really laziness?

It is the bias of the culture that Serenity or Stillness is regarded as laziness or to put it the other way "not being in action" is regarded as negative. I personally don't really think so. I treat it as a action and in fact the most powerful one. Because it is only stillness that can conquer the heat! I see a lot of people in my office through the day who are really frazzled, swamped with work, meetings, emails, interruptions or are hassled by phone calls, kids, errands and chores.
PAUSE!!!
Stay still for a minute, close your eyes and breathe and find the stillness within yourself. This stillness spreads to your body and to your mind and it calms you down, centers you, focuses you on what you are doing right now, not on all that you have to do or all that has to happened. Stillness then becomes a transformative action for you. It is a very powerful tool to all the noise that is around you. It is a way to push back hard on all the buzz that is created around you, a way to remind you what is important for the moment.

I also do agree to the fact that it does not come naturally to all people but with practice, one can learn to master the art. Start your day with stillness, it sets the tone for the things to come. Through the day, take breaks of stillness. I have seen many people who have neck problems because of spending hours on the PC set a alarm to remind them of exercise. Along similar lines, set alarm to take stillness breaks. When chaos roars, pause. In the middle of a crisis or a noisy day, stop. Be still. Take a deep breath, and focus on that breath coming in, and going out. Find your inner stillness and then let your next action come from that stillness. Focus on that next action only.

Switch - Nice book on how to bring about "CHANGE"

Change can be a difficult thing. Most people want to change their lives, in some way, but find it difficult to either get started or to sustain the change for very long. What have I learned from my changes? I could write a book on this (and probably will someday), but the essence can be found in the space between the inevitable fact of change, and in the incredible resistance to change inside ourselves and in the people around us. We want to change, and yet we don’t. How do we resolve this tension? It can be incredibly difficult but extremely joyous path. This book highlights on how to make it a joyous path.

Brain Storming Format

From Emergic Blog

Brainstorming is very useful to get a set of opinions on different issues from a diverse group. I have tried out this format for getting ideas to bubble up from individuals and groups:

* Identity 4-5 key questions that needs to be discussed
* Create a questionnaire which is then given to each individual to answer in about 10 minutes
* Split people up into groups of 6-7 people at a roundtable. Depending on the number of people, work out the number of groups that will be there (call it N). Go around the room asking each person to sequentially say 1,2,3…N. Group all the people with the same number together. This is important to mix people up.
* Ask the group to discuss each of the questions based on the individual responses and come up with a common (consensus) answer to each of the questions. This helps draw out the “wisdom of crowds.”
* One person from each group presents to the wider audience.
* Collect both the individual answers and the group answers.
* After this, there can be an open-house (time permitting).

This process helps distill out both individual thinking and the collective view for each of the issues. It also ensures that each person gets an opportunity to talk (at the group-level). A structured discussion is necessary because a free-for-all format can degenerate into chaos very quickly.