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Education Matters III - contd

by Pushpa Raghuram
(Bangalore, Karnataka, India)

Zeiss lenses

Janaki also had chosen a pair of zeiss lenses, by default German lens, for her spectacles. Despite these fancy glasses, Janaki was perhaps more in need of a paradigm shift to understand the lifestyle of youngsters around her.

Vyjayanthi celebrated her motherhood by bringing Parinitha in to the world. Soon Vyjayanthi’s focus was on her child’s schooling and upbringing. Janaki pressed a refresh button in her mind on educational matters.

Parinitha started her Montessori classes in Bangalore, did her primary and middle school in international schools in Singapore, to then home schooling for a year, before moving to England to do her secondary school in another international school. She then later joined a traveling high school to continue her Secondary school. Her pattern of education was 180 degrees from Janaki’s.

While Parinitha was traveling the world with her school, Covid 19 also happened to be traveling around in 2020. This brought lot of changes and a new norm was being set everywhere. Janaki also travelled to be with Vyjayanthi and Parinitha, both of whom were now working and studying from home in England.

Janaki started observing Parinitha’s high school. Everything was through the seminars, presentations, essays, story writing etc. She had to choose projects for her Mastery work during her 10th standard, and had to do 5 APs before her 11th standard. They were on Psychology, Economics, World History etc. She was already surfing the internet to find the top schools for her undergrad studies in the USA and the UK.

Her favourite pastimes are K-Dramas, K-Pop and Japanese Anime. She had learnt Spanish, Japanese and Chinese during her education. She was discussing works by artists like Yayoi Kusama, and put her passions into creating webcomics. Her dairies were full of “To do lists”. Janaki was awestruck to hear her discuss her World History AP examination, and what she wrote as her answers.

Heraclitus, the Greek Philosopher of the late 6th Century BCE, had said “the only constant in life is change,”—a quote which Janaki heard Ram say often.

“Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” (2020),
Currently the highest grossing japanese anime Film was Parinatha’s favorite one.

Ram had left the world seeking greener pastures. Her life was changing again and she knew that she had to brace herself for another new norm. Old order changeth once more…

***

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Jul 05, 2021
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Superb
by: Madhusudan:

Beautifully written story, catching glimpses of various events in "Janaki’s" life from childhood to the present day. Almost a autobiographical narrative, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story of "Janaki".

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