Rigved

These days Rigved fires up his computer, gets on to YouTube and watches Dan Nelson’s tutorials on drawing the human figure. He has taken this drawing/learning to draw a human figure quite seriously. As soon as he wakes at 11:30 am, he walks across the house to our study/computer/work room and opens up a big drawing book and tries his hand at what he learnt from Dan Nelson!

In other news, Rig takes the job of a monitor very seriously and introduces innovative measures to make sure the children in his class behave themselves! His job is to write down names of the kids who are creating a racket or misbehaving when the teacher is not around. He has to write these names on the blackboard. Some kids still continue with the racket despite their name appearing once on the board. So Rig introduced a system where he puts a cross next to the kid’s name so that it may be pointed out easily that the number of crosses + 1 = the number of times the kid was misbehaving. Then to motivate the kids from not misbehaving further, he tells them that if they behave themselves, he ll take their name off the board. This seems to work the best. Yet some kids are as he put it, ‘incorrigible’. They not only continue to misbehave but also come and try to rub their own name off the board… Rigved came out with another strategy for them where he re-writes their name and puts an infinity sign (sleeping next to their names. The kids get confused with that sign not entirely sure of what that means. Rig just means to suggest that the kid with the infinity next to his name is talking repeatedly but the kid feels there is some trouble awaiting him coz he cannot entirely grasp what is infinite.

Lastly, Rig asked me if I d go to the gym when I get old? I told him its become quite a challenge even while I m young to be regular at the gym so I m not sure if I m going to be regular in my old age. He said, whatever I dccided to do, there is a good chance that there will be bigger treadmills by then so that I could use my walking stick

Rig had recently given his cyclic tests for both History and Math. Yesterday he told me he might get full marks in History. I told him to avoid saying such things coz if they are not true then it can coz unnecessary disappointment.

Today when he came out of the school, he was visibly excited and announced that he had secured full marks(25/25) in both History as well as Math! So what he had stated yesterday was not an overstatement!

This year Rigved appeared for his first examination. His school has refrained from conducting any exams till standard 4 except the final examination for standard 4. Rig scored a little over 95% and we were really happy to see his marks. One by one, as we looked at each paper’s marks, I felt like one by one someone was giving me fat wads of 1000 rupee notes! In a fit of excitement, we forgot to note down the marks for Science, but from what I remember, all the marks were between 24 and 25 for all the 25 marks papers.

24 3/4 / 25 – Geography – V Good
24 / 25 – History – V Good *
39 / 40 – English – V Good *
44 1/2 / 50 – Maths – V Good
24 1/2 / 25 – Hindi
24/ 25 – Marathi

On the last day of school, his math teacher had told Rig to tell us and meet us on the Reports Card day as she had some good news for us. We were the only parents to be called by her. When we went there she was delighted to tell us that Rig has shown tremendous improvement in math and he had apparently come up to her and told her that he was finally taking interest in the subject.

Banda had taken most of the studies of Rig, except Mathematics(which I took) and she had even collated, organized and managed all his study material, notes, books, pencils, erasers, sharperners, revision, test papers, learning by heart, writing etc. diligently and there were times I couldnt make out who was appearing for the exam!

After the Reports Day, we went to Infinity Mall, where Rig played in the playhouse there, bought a Disney drawing book and a Harry Potter (part IV) game for the PlayStation.

Today in class, Rigved was the only one who knew what is mg(milligram). Most children knew mm and ml, but everyone was clueless about mg.

The exams are nearing. Rig’s daily schedule is

• 10:30 am Wake up & get ready
• 11:00 am to 12:00 study (copywriting + tables / leftover worksheets)
• 12:00 to 12:30 lunch (some television)
• 1:00 to 6:15 school
• 6:30 to 7:10 change into play clothes(prefers black or any dark color) watch some tv while having supper
• 7:15 to 9:30 go play in the opposite building
• 9:30 to 10:00 pm wash n get into night dress(hardly anything), have dinner
• 10:00 to 11:30 study
• 11:30 to 12:30 watch one episode of Sherlock Holmes
• 12:30 forcibly go to sleep

He seems to be quite good in whatever he has for studies. He thinks he doesnt like Mathematics, but I think he is attributing his dislike for the Math teacher! The teacher is quite dispassionate in her approach and isnt really out there to get children to understand what a brilliant subject math can be. I think most children who hate a subject, actually are expressing their dislike for the teacher who is teaching them that subject at school.

As a kid, I had a brilliant teacher in school for math… Mr.Colin… years later he was the same guy who sold me my first accoustic guitar. A math teacher who was a musician! No wonder then, he imbibed in me that Maths is fun!

Rig is getting ready to go with Banda to her office. His sole purpose is to get 2 GI Joe action figures and a set of playing cards as he is learning some magic tricks from this program called Tricky TV! He has already learnt a few tricks. He is also taking along a book to read and a drawing book to keep himself busy while Banda finishes her work after which they should ideally get on with what he has set out with her for… toys!
Day before yesterday he performed in the annual cultural program of his school. He played the role of a scribe – royal messenger and did it quite good. There were 2 instances when he had to bow down before leaving the stage… he ‘bowed’ so low, that it looked like his nose touched his knees! It was the most ‘down to earth’ and cute bow ever.

Rigved hasnt been going to school for the last 3 days for no really good reason… I was worried that he might be missing so much studies.. In this worry I went to see what he was up to.. he had cosily curled up on the sofa and he was reading a book called The Art of War, Ancient Chinese War Techniques…. I thought to myself… ah he is missing nothing…

He has created a model of Pingu out of white clay. He plans to color it today.

The reason why he is home is because he is supposedly sick. He has a bit of congestion but he is not really looking weak or coughing or sneezing etc. He plays with his toys, reads his books, laughs out loud, goes outdoor to play in the evenings, watches movies… basically everything except for school. I guess he is sick of school…

Some days ago Rigved told me that he is going to be in a band! So today I bought Rigved his very own acoustic guitar from Bhargava’s… Rigved wanted it for some time now and he was absolutely thrilled on getting it. I also got him a book on World War I… this too he wanted for quite some time now.

Just some time ago we saw The House of Flying Daggers… Its 2:15 in the morning right now and Rigved is reading a Satyajit Ray story called Fotikchand… I insisted him to read it as I read it last night and I was truly shaken by it. These days Rigved reads for quite some time in the night and goes to bed very late. The school began this week on the 16th (Banda’s birthday) and in the first week itself, he has been made the monitor, has got a few stars and full marks in a dictation test that he did not even prepare for. I sincerely feel that its due to his reading habit.

Rigved has started learning animation using Flash and he has shown some serious development on the basis of the very few basic things I showed him. He has said on many occasions that he wants to be an animator who makes films. He is at that age where inability to do something is not considered a setback… it is just a hurdle that one can jump over. Some times I feel that he is really gearing himself for a very big journey, a journey that doesn’t take him towards the North star, but makes him the North star.

Rigved loves cheese. Yesterday he was eating a pizza and some cheese fell off on the plate. He lifted it and looked at it and smiled, then he popped it in his mouth.

These few days are the last days of his 3rd Standard and in a couple of weeks the summer vacation begins. This year Rigved will appear for the Scholarship exams for standard 4 children. We have even enrolled him for a special tuition class for the scholarship exams. Needless to say, we had asked him at least a hundred times if he wants to go ahead with this as it can be a bit hectic for him. Every time he said he wants to do it.

He is kinda sure of certain things. For example, a few days ago, I was wondering if I should buy a Midi Controller and pro speakers for my home recording studio. I was not sure if it was worth spending the money and I kept wondering if it will work out or not. I kept asking him, “Should I buy this gear… do you think I ll be doing music again… I just hope it works out.” Every time I said that, he instantly said that I should buy it. Despite of that I kept doubting and once he said, “Of course its going to happen, YOU are making it a hope.”

Rigved is home as he had cold yesterday. He is fine now but preferred to rest at home than go to school.

Much has happened in the last few weeks. The sports day and the annual day were of primary importance as he had to practice every day for his role in the events. In the sports day he was part of a group that engaged in some formations on the ground. The act lasted about 10 minutes but he was trained for it for a whole month. It was at Andheri Sports Complex. We could see him from a distance and it feels *very* different to see someone you love at a great distance. More than the act itself, it was a totally unknown feeling to see him sitting with his friends, running around the ground for fetching water or just staring somewhere.

The second event, his annual school day where he was part of a drama was not the same as compared to the sports day as we could see him only in the act. He played the role of God. He was a bit conscious of the costume he was wearing as it exposed some parts of his back and he was totally not OK with it.

These days he is getting noticed by his teacher and the principal for his command over the English language. He makes these brilliant sentences which are serious and have deeper implications. His principal has already asked for his worksheets to give a special remark to probably tell us that we must build on this. He has joined a new workshop called Springs – Break Creative Barriers in school and in that too, his teacher has taken notice of this.

All in all he is growing up. His approach to things is not childish anymore though it doesnt lack any childlike values either.

Some days ago, Banda had got Rigved a globe.

The next day, Banda found a piece of paper in his bag which had a list of seas of the world. There were about 20 of them. Rigved had apparently looked at the globe and jotted down their names and taken it to school. He had shown that list to his teacher and she had really liked this endeavour of Rigved. She asked him to read out the names to the class. We were not even aware that he was upto this and he hadnt even told us about it. We were pleasantly surprised to discover this undercover activity that Rigved was upto.

To his teacher, Rigved is a very well read boy and whenever we meet her, she never fails to comment on his writing skills. Last week he was sent to the head mistress with his school diary and the head mistress had noted in it, “Rigved is a very smart and intelligent boy”. Though both me and Banda are still not sure what prompted the head mistress to do so but we can safely assume it was for all the right reasons.