TEFL graduate is in the house

Course is finally over. No more shuttling up and down Hiland park to get to class. The course ended with a bang in Tung Fong restaurant where we had our end of course lunch. Certificates were distributed during lunch. I am now officially qualified to teach kids English while on posted life.

Got a call some days back from a principal of Calcutta International School for the English teacher position I had applied for. Interview was fixed for today at 4.30pm. My driver was stuck in the traffic and only managed to pick me up at 4.15pm. But watever happens, happens for the good. At 4pm, I get a call from CIS telling me that the meeting has been rescheduled becoz of an urgent meeting the Principal has to attend. I was sooooooooooooooo elated. Asked them if I could meet them the wk after next coz I was gonna be in Singapore next week.

And yes, I'm coming back to my country (for a wk)....a country I have learnt to appreciate having spent 1 mth in Calcutta. So what if we r a fine city, we r a rocking city...unlike some cities I know........

Come Mon, HOME SWEET HOME!!!

Cheers

Rain rain go away lil Sheela wants to go to school

I am at home writing a blog today thanks to the floods in the city. Its been raining incessantly since Sat night. Owing to the wonderful drainage system in India, let alone Calcutta, we are swimming. Schools have been closed since ydy and there goes our teaching practicum as well. Its our last week of classes where we have 4 teaching sessions. Fri's officially the end of course that is marked by a lunch outing. If the rain persists, then our practices are going for a six. No clue wat will happen if we don't meet our quota of teaching practices. As long as I get my certificate after paying a bomb for the course, I'll be more than glad.

The rain's been pretty bad. The lobby of our apartment is waterlogged. Froggies and tadpoles are happily swimming around. Wat a sight. You should be here to know what its like!!! Ciao as I go get my hot cup of tea.

Pics

Here's the link to the pics from my bhub-puri-konark trip.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560740058FJaGnn

cheers

Puri & Konark

So here goes the rest of my Oriya Odyssey. On 15th we headed off in a car to Puri via Konark. The journey was picturesque with green pastures around us. Drove through villages and saw ladies clad in blouseless sarees...Just the way u find them in picture postcards. We stopped at Konark to visit the much-talked about Sun Temple. Amazing stuff.. U will know when you see the pics. We hired a guide who explained the intricate sculptures of the temple. How hinduism glorifies kamasutra. After Konark, we continued our journey to Puri while stopping at little temples along the way. Checked into our hotel at Puri and went for a walk along the beach. Clean sands, waves crushing at our feet......BLISS. We then got changed and headed out to the Jagannath (Lord Krishna) temple. This is a true example of a remarkable architectual feat. Interestingly, the temple has a red flag on the top and apparently it denotes that Jagannath is within the building.

What I found really strange was that the temple is selective regarding who is allowed entry into the grounds. Theres a board on the wall of the entrance that says that non-Hindus were not allowed entry into the temple premises. While I was googling for possible reasons, came across a site that said there was some evidence that this came into force following a series of invasions by foreigners into the temple and surrounding area. Cameras aren't allowed in the temple premises. So if you need to look at pictures, google "Jagannath temple"- Plenty for your perusal.

I will attach the link to the pics of Nandakannan zoo and the Sun temple soon once they are done uploading. Enjoy.

Oriya Odyssey

On 13th Sept, Vinod headed off to Bhubaneswar for official work while I stayed behind to be a good student and attend my classes. Despite this, I was not going to lose out on my chance to visit other parts of Eastern India. I wouldnt miss that for the world!! So on Fri even, I was whisked to the airport to catch my flight to the state capital, Bhubaneswar, fondly known as Temple City of India. Reached on time and was welcomed by Vinod at the airport. We then proceeded to our hotel- the best in the city. Mayfair Lagoon.


For a bit of history about this enthralling city: Being the seat of 'Lord Lingaraj', a form of Lord Shiva, Bhubaneswar is an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. Hundreds of temples dot the landscape of the Old Town, which once boasted more than 2000 temples. Bhubaneswar, in particular hosts the Lingaraj Temple. Lingaraj Temple stands majestically as the largest temple in Bhubaneswar. At 55 metres high, it dominates the landscape with 150 smaller shrines in its spacious courtyard and is surrounded by massive walls lavishly decorated with beautiful sculptures. Beautiful not because they are well maintained...but beautiful because of the ancient look the temple has. Truly an outstanding specimen of Oriyan craftmanship.


Despite the richness of the temple experience, the trip was somehow marred by the fact that people claiming to be priests ask for money to perform poojas or for giving of prashad. I was terribly disturbed by the fact that these people would try and make money in the name of GOD. We stuck to putting our donations in the donation box instead of putting it on the tray belonging to the priests. Who knows if they pocket the money. This seemed to be a trend in all temples that we stopped by during our trip. They chant some prayers, give u the holy water and then ask for more money when you put your donation. Ridiculous people.


Just as we finished our temple visit, it started to pour cats and dogs. With our car down the road we had no choice but to wait under a tent belonging to a shop till our driver drove to where we were.


The city of Bhubaneswar amazed me. For one, it had wide and DECENT roads. The city was colourful and it was an experience of its own because there in Bhub, vehicles compete more with goats and cows for road space more than with PEOPLE like in this city of "JOY".


I will attach a pic of Lingaraj Temple and follow up with more details on my trip in subsequent posts. Dont wanna bore you too much.

Tranquility

When you think Kolkata, you definitely do not think of tranquility. Not till I arrived at Vedic Village- a unique spa resort experience with the flavour of the Indian countryside. Set in the exclusive Rajarhat Megacity - a 20 minute drive from Kolkata city airport and just 40 minutes away from the centre of the City. Truly a place to relax and recharge. The drive to Vedic Village wasn't a pleasant one with bad bumpy roads but all of that was forgotten when we checked into our Earth Villa. A truly rustic room. We looked out of our window and found ourselves surrounded by a lake and pretty white-winged water birds flying around. We put our things in our room and headed home for lunch at the in-house restaurant, Yagna. Indulged in a yummy buffet lunch which was reasonably priced. Later when back into our room, did some assignment, watched some cricket, played carrom, pool, table tennis and chilled again in our room. Definitely what I wanted. Some peace and quiet. As we ordered some snacks in our room, we got a call from the hotel staff saying that we got an upgrade into the spa villas, the best in Vedic Village. (Don't ask how :P)

Time for dinner - and we headed out for dinner. Ordered some cocktails in our room and enjoyed the tranquility around us. I always love hotel breakfasts and this was no exception. Awesome omelettes, idlis, sambhars, etc etc etc. With a full tummy, we left Vedic to face the hustle bustle all recharged!

Ciao

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

My long awaited course finally started. The TEFL certificate course that I decided to pursue to occupy my time. Who knows I might even become a teacher in some school here in Kolkata. Anyway, we are into the 2nd week of our course and it has served well in occupying my time. In fact more time than i could afford with the tons of assignments we gotta at home. The class is great with 8 of us in total. One from South Africa, 3 from USA, 1 from Israel and 2 from India. The trainer is a fantastic tutor, someone you can keep listening to for hours. We are now starting our teaching practices which is the highlight of the course.. I think we have 8 of them. Trow we are starting with the Shared teaching practice which we get to do in pairs. I got exposure to a local govt school which hosts largely kids of underprivileged families. It was an awesome experience just talking to one student. I think there are far more educational experiences to come, more than just learning how to be an English teacher.