Another ' arrow from the bow'

' Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of God.'



All alone,my 10 year old nephew has come to spend his summer holidays with us.For his parents and for me ,there is an agenda behind his visit.Of course ,it is not hidden from him either.He has to be polished 'mathematically',scrubbed 'spelligaly', stregthened 'tennisically'and whetted 'swimmigwise'.He came ready ,all set for the joke ,with a backpack of clothes and a carton of books.I too was ready long before his arrival ,all set for the most serious ,life or death challenge I have ever undertaken in my life.Loads of worksheets were downloaded from the net,printouts taken ,his room decorated with motivating quotes written on chart papers and with a big picture of his favourite car BMW,rescheduled my work commitments outside the house,stocked all processed and could-be-prosessed healthy food stuffs ......and spent sleepless nights planning.
On the first day I gave a long speech describing the things we were going to do together, how easy it was going to be for him in his next class if he studied everything in advance ,how people have reached heights,why people fail in their life .... ....But since his yawning was not very encouraging for me I had to reluctantly cut short the prepared speech.Still not a bad beginning.I showed him the +ve points chart specially designed for him.Any good or smart deed will be rewarded with a point in the chart.


Very magnanimously I allowed freedom on the first day.He could do anything , just relax and be ready for the real business which will start on the next day.He can watch TV or play a game with me or read a book or go down and make some new friends or........He asked me, "can I sleep?"



Wake up at the first call and a point will fall on the chart -was my goodnight parting words to him.He did wake up -at the 28th call but nevertheless, I gave him the point 'cos I know that a child can flourish only with +ve strokes and you shouldn't be stingy about it.And also a job well begun is half done.So I couldn't afford not to give the point.


A brief invocation of Ganapathy(which I didn't know but learned with great effort the day before )and our battle started.The first set of worksheets with 25 questions in maths were taken out,time set for one hour and starting shot fired.I left the room to avoid my unhealthy interference .Oh, so this is what they say ' the anxious moments outside the delivery room'.Time over.On entering the ' delivery room ' I couldn't see him anywhere there.He was in the toilet.Before he came out I gave an anxious glance at his work.The glance became a stare and the stare had become a glare when he opened the toilet door.There was one question number neatly written and beautifully and elaborately decorated on the answer sheet and that was all !

In the evening he was taken to a pizza selling restaurant. I wanted to give him the pleasure of ordering his choice. No limits,I said ,U can order what you want.I had decided that I will not impose my opinion or try to influence him in his choice.Children should be treated with the same respect that you give to a grownup,you know. I wanted to be a model in all these matters.And he ordered- One large pizza with chicken ,olive and cheese toppings, one veg and egg double burger , some garlic bread , one plate of finger chips and a large sprite.I too placed my order-A large glass of water with no ice.Our food came with a reasonably long delay.He began eating and I sat back and enjoyed the sight of him relishing the food.He started off with his favourite pizza. He had the last bite of one fifth of the large pizza and said with a very contented look and a beautiful smile, "I am F U L L".


As for tennis and swimming, it's going on without any hinderence.


Now 28 days have passed.He has only 12 more days with me.Meanwhile I was going on submitting the daily report of his progress through morning and evening phone calls to his parents who are far away.They don't seem to be quite happy.But I am very optimistic.We still have time to study fractions,decimals,profit andloss,conversions,lines,triangles,circles,perimeter,
area,volume and just a bit of algebra.After all ,we finished revision of addition and subtraction within these 28 days,didn't we?Yes ,it's true that he knew them very well since he had studied them 2 years back,but we revised them very well. And the positive point chart is not empty at all-he has scored two points.There is still time to get enough points to fill the rest 98 boxes.As I always advise his parents ,you have to be positive in your outlook,then only things will work out well,you see.