Math remedial class on Thursday is something I'd like to erase from my memory. And the reason is because I lost my patience with the kids that day. Teaching has become a bleak activity these days and for a long time I attributed it to what I call 'midterm crisis' among the students. One normally starts off fresh at the start of the year, with crisp new notebooks, upgraded classrooms and fresh topics to learn. It is the time when the academic load hasn't yet piled on and one's senses can discern the smell of the rain soaked mud while getting familiar with new lessons. It is a gestation period that seemingly welcomes an eager mind with ease and anticipation. But as the term progresses, the burden increases, concepts are like bouncers on a seamer's paradise, the same eager mind is at wit's end and to add to the symbolism, even the textbooks start disintegrating, echoing the owner's disability to maintain her/his constitution as the world races ahead. The boredom shows even on the teachers who start feeling consummated with the disinterest of their students. It was one such class on Thursday where for the hundredth time they couldn't remember how to crossmultiply two fractions, how to reduce simple algebraic expressions and other such things. I snapped and made a few condescending remarks. I've normally been extremely patient but I lost control that day and a weird feeling grappled me that very moment. It was probably a feeling of resignation. For the rest of the class I submissively solved all the problems on the board, explaining each step but not bothering to ask them questions to gauge how much seeped in. When I walked out of my class that day, I was sure they hadn't understood a thing of the shit I wrote so neatly on the blackboard.

I saw Taare Zameen Par today and I'm happy to have seen it at a moment as appropriate as this. I cannot sit and articulate everything, but I did learn two or three things from the movie, even if you'd like to call them quotidian. It was a beautiful film (despite some overtly melodramatic moments where I heartlessly smirked as the lady next to me was reaching for her handkerchief). But all said and done, amidst discourses from the Heisenbergs, Goethes and the Dawkinses of the world, a couple of hours at the cinemas is a necessary respite to help you realise that your feet are stuck to the ground. And it is a happy feeling to know that there is still much ground to cover :)

Einstein was a giant. His head was in the clouds, but his feet were on the ground. Those of us who are not so tall have to choose!
- Richard Feynman