I, Me and Myself

Me: So finally its time.

Myself: I am glad it is....

Me: So lets start it. Well you know what it would be? Don't you?

Myself: Of course. Lets go with it!

Me: Favourite colour, food, movie, novel, etc, you got the ques...Didn't you?

Myself: Well, colour would be blue, food pizza, movie Black Hawk Dawn, novel none!

Me: Why no novels?

Myself: Well they are quite loooong and by the time I finish reading say about 20%, I am pretty bored. Its better to watch it when they make a movie based on it. Saves a lot of time!

Me: And what about music?

Myself: Music is a different story altogether. Firstly I don't have a so called "best" for music, defined by none of album, artist, genre, etc. I hear nearly all kind of music. Secondly, every song is kind of special to me. Its like, each of them caught my ear, the very first time I heard them. So I now I have a pretty huge collection of songs for all moods which is still growing...

Me: Okay I get it :P So now tell me about your hobbies.

Myself: Hobbies. Well they change over time. Quite a few years back, I used to be a gamer. I still have a bit of that left in me. Then started playing minesweeper and other puzzles. Then started playing guitar and so today, I spend most of my time learning guitar.

Me: :O That's cool. Tell me more about guitar as such.

Myself: Well it started with trying my hands on the guitar of a friend and applying the logic I used on Casio and Viola! I could play something. So I bought one of my own and learnt all things from a website called www.cyberfret.com. Then after the basic knowledge, switched to youtube for lessons and now I just read tablatures using a software called GuitarPro. That's how I learnt. No teacher ;)

Me: So how do you manage all those things?

Myself: Managing all these. for me, is all about following "highest priority first".

Me: :O And do you mind explaining what that means?

Myself: Its like "You wanna do something? Do it!" Who cares about what happens later. Today you wanna do it, so do it. Who knows tomorrow you'd change your mind and wouldn't wanna do the exact same thing, and some time later, you'd wonder "It really would have been wonderful had I done that then...". So bottom line: "Follow your heart"

Me: Don't you think you'd lose the interest in it after some time if you go after it with all that passion?

Myself: Nice point. I have heard many people say "You really shouldn't do all at once. You should save some for the future". But honestly speaking, that's not how I work. That's not how I see it. What's the point of doing things just for the sake of it? If I wanna do something, I'll do it properly, and then later I can do other things, all with the same passion.

Me: So it means you don't have a schedule.

Myself: Absolutely. I just don't like following a schedule. I don't know about promises, but schedules are meant to be broken, or rather not adhere to.

Me: Besides these, how do you spend your time?

Myself: I'd be sleeping, taking a nap, if I am not watching cartoons, listening to music, or maybe studying.

Me: Did I just heard cartoons? ;P

Myself: Well yes you did. What could be better than watching Tom & Jerry, Duck Tales, Tale Spin and many others, and still feel that you're a kid at heart? And when you wanna see something better, anime serves the variety as well. DBZ and bleach were brilliant. I don't watch them over and over again....but watching all of these, with my friends, was a great experience.

Me: One last question. Why do you blog?

Myself: Honestly speaking, blogging is one of the crappiest thing a person can do. Blogs serve no purpose whatsoever unless they are like, news blogs, event blogs, content specific, or meant for a specific thing. So yes, my blogging is indeed a waste of time! But still, Its a nice collection of some thought provoking articles, having some depth, for people who are kind of interested or appreciate such stuff. They are most welcome to have a look at it. For others, maybe you should go somewhere else, where you may get a taste of funny, light-hearted, and other more enjoyable topics! Superficial maybe. That's it.

Me: I think I am done asking....Do you have any to ask?

I: Yesssss. I have a lot to ask. Finally its my turn! Yeeeee.

Myself: :)

I: Which were your favourite computer games?

Myself: GTA:VC, COD4 nd COD5, POP, and DMC. Those are top notch. And burnout too!

I: Okay! Crack a joke!

Myself: NOW?

I: Of course now ;)

Myself: Well I have two in mind. You remember "I missed" one, or "I told you not to go" one??

I: :O Yes I do, Okay then leave it. ;) Here's the next question: Can you dance?

Myself: :O From where did that came? Of course I can't, ball-dancing is a different thing though ;)

I: hehe. Can you sing?

Myself: :O I'm trying to learn singing with the guitar.

I: And can you...

Myself: Okay! You need to stop asking arbit questions ;P

I: :D

Myself: We'll continue with this some other day. You can ask some more arbit questions then, but now I really have to go. I have some important work to do.

I: Okay! Go learn ball dancing. And singing too ;P

Myself: ^-^

I: BTW, I would want to go out for a walk with you, maybe for a lunch/dinner or so. Tell me when you are free.

Myself: Really? You really wanna go? OK then lets go now.

I: But you had some important work...

Myself: Aah. No problem! I can manage that. Screw the work for now. Lets go! :)

I: Yeeee :D

Myself: Me, why don't you join us?

Me: Sure. It would be great to see myself and I with me. After both of you. Btw, we 3 have been together....where have the other two of us been???

Myself: Hmm...Now that you've said it, I wonder what they're up to! They must be somewhere else. Leave'em for some other time. Today its just the three of us....

How to be a good teacher.

To be able to understand that, you first need to know how to be a bad teacher. Consider the following conversation (based on an actual incident):

Student: Sir, I have a doubt. Why can't we...

Teacher: Do you know about X ?

Student: I'm sorry I don't. (with regret) But why can't we do that if we go by this, "...."(tries to explain)

Teacher: Do you know about Y ? (frustrated)

Student: I'm sorry, neither that. I guess the real problem is that I don't know the terms you are talking about.(more regret)

Teacher: How can I tell that when you don't know a thing about anything? What do you do to improve your knowledge? When you want to know about this you got to have a basic knowledge of something. This is not what you expect from a student of your age. (frustration and anger)

Student: ...speechless...(Thinking I really shouldn't have asked him) Sir, do you want me to learn about them first? (tries to withdraw)

Teacher: I just want this to get over with, give you grades and let you go!(extreme frustration)

Student: ...puzzled...

So what went wrong? First identify the following:

1. The student is willing to get his doubts clarified, thereby increasing the frustration.
2. The student is curious to know about things he doesn't know, but asking questions seems to frustrate the teacher.
3. The teacher is unwilling to get down to the student's level and explain.
4. The teacher never answered the real question "why can't we..."
5. Remarks like the last one are rude, outrageous, disgusting and can have a negative impact.

The wrong on teacher's side is that he could have replied in variety of ways and made an attempt to explain the answer. Some are:

• Student: Sir, I have a doubt. Why can't we... Teacher: That's because...
• Student: I don't know about X. Teacher: Okay. So then I need to explain what X is. Well X is nothing but ....
• Student: Sir, do you want me to learn about them first? Teacher: Yes. That will explain why can't we do that. So read about A,B, ...

As we see, the whole idea is not to make the student realize that he knows nothing and he is a fool. The attempt is to first understand where the student has a problem and then try to correct him and explain it to him. If he is unable to grasp that, then present the solution in a simpler way. And if still he is unable to understand, the provide him the grounds and show him the way that he should follow. And not get frustrated over such petty matters. Its in realizing that your getting frustrated or angry will make you less approachable.

Its sad how some teachers just don't realize this. Teaching is an art, and more than that, an art that requires patience and will. You just can't go to a plant and get angry as to why ain't its branches blossomed with flowers and laden with fruits. You have to give it water and wait for it to grow to become a tree. That's how teaching should be. And not just teaching, but many day to day things.

We all must have heard the classic analogy between a potter and a teacher. A potter slaps, changes and bends the pottery from outside but also provides support from the inside, concerned as to not break it, and to give it the right shape. What good are you if you can't provide that support...That's what separates a good teacher from others.

Inspiration: "How to have a fruitless debate" - Ethical Toolbox by Anthony Weston.