34. Some more parenting tips

 

Oh Wow! So we are parents now. Can we believe it?.....

Karen and Joshua were on top of the world. Karen had become mother of a cute baby girl, Tina. She had been preparing for motherhood for quite some time. They had read a lot of books and surfed the internet for the tips so as to become the most ideal parents.

Let’s share some of the knowledge that they gained.

Parenthood is a boon given to all the living beings for carrying on the process of generation ahead. It is a wonderful feeling of creation that only the parents can understand. However, once you become a parent it is not for just one day but the entire life. It is full of responsibilities and sacrifices, too.

A few important responsibilities for the parents towards their children are:

v Proper Nurturing

v Taking Good Healthcare

v Real Education

v Instilling Positive Values

 

Let’s examine them one by one!

Proper nurturing

The first and the foremost thing to do is to keep your expectations under check. Parenting is a gradual process of learning, too. It all begins with love, care and warmth for your child. These are natural feelings given by the nature to the parents. Don’t be miser in showing them. A hug or a cuddle is all it takes to show these to your child. Interact with them in a real sense. Talking to them, while watching television or with your work brought home from the office or during WFH, so common these days, is just an eye-wash and done just for the false satisfaction. Your children long for your response to their stories. Listen to them and respond with full attention. Keep positivity alive and be their friend, mentor and confidant. Remember, your children will remain children for you during their entire life.

In case of improper nurturing, such as in disturbed families, the children see the quarreling; shortages; absence of one of the parents due to death, divorce or sickness; or other similar problems, the children do not attain natural physical and mental growth. Either, they become too much meek and coward or, gain aggressive demeanor. If we pick up family background of the criminals, most of them come from disturbed homes or pick up bad company, which again is the sign of improper nurturing.

Taking good healthcare

Our health issues have grabbed the eye-balls during the Corona pandemic. Remember, children and old people are more susceptible to it. However, besides this, regular healthcare of the children should never be ignored. Don’t overlook slightest symptoms. Of course, you don’t need to be paranoid about it but one should be vigilant. It begins with vaccinations. In their early age, visit to a good pediatrician is very helpful. Monitoring of their growth, both physical as well as mental, should be your prime concern.

According to the latest report published by the Government of India as up to 2018, 30 children out of every 1000 do not survive in our country. It is because of improper healthcare facilities. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to get proper healthcare for your children, don’t ignore. The children are delicate creatures and need good healthcare.

Improper healthcare may result in stunted growth, health complications, disturbed academics, behavioral problems, mental delinquencies and even problems in the social adjustment. Irregular healthcare, ignorance of health issues such as eye-related, dental problems, stomach-aches, headaches or any other physical/ mental agony, may be damaging in the later stage of life.

Real Education

Education holds prime importance in our lives. It is the duty of the parents to arrange for proper education of their children. Starting from basic education, middle school, senior school, college, up to professional or vocational education should be monitored thoroughly.

As per Government statistics, nearly 85% of urban and 69% of rural population is literate but cross your hearts to tell, if literacy means education in its true sense? It is very urgent that the children do not do only rote learning but it should be applied in nature too. Our new NEP-2020 is a right step in this direction. Please refer to my article “NEP-2020-What does it mean” on this space or on my blog Education 2020 (link: eduofday.blogspot.com). Proper education should necessarily be holistic in nature. The child must come out of the portals of the institution as the one blessed with the best of attributes like compassion, care, discipline, punctuality, synchronization with others, honesty, communication, social skills etc. besides the brilliance in the academics.

Lack of this real education, may result into the person going for criminal activities, in order to get some short-term gains. An example can be taken from the life of Osama Bin Laden. He was highly educated but it was used in the wrong direction and the result was 9/11 disaster that changed the world suddenly into drastically.

Instilling Positive Values

Our values hold a very important place in the life. Believe me, it all begins at home. A well-endowed, culturally-rich family reinforces the life of the children with positive value system. Such a child is never a failure and comes out strongly out of the challenging situations, unscathed.

If the parents do not instill good values, the children are bound to pick up the negative ones. It is very easy to get into the bad company and take up wrong attributes. Therefore, cautiousness about the children’s company is a must.

Takeaways

These tips are only few in numbers. Attributes such as Compassion, Courage, Humor, Thoughtfulness, Presence of Mind, Wit, Wisdom, Simplicity, Practical Approach, Helpfulness etc. play very important role in the children’s life.

Although, it is too early for Karen and Joshua to implement but they are vigilant parents and Tina is really lucky to have them as her parents.

#Parenting #ParentingAdvise #ParentingTips #Parenthood

The author R C Verma has shared some of his personal experience in the form of this article. Please post your critical views in the comment box here. This is also available for reading on www.lucknowcity.co.in in the education section.

 

33.a. Doesn't email mean easy mail?

 

Laura was sobbing bitterly. Just now, she had been scolded by her boss. She had, carelessly, sent Robert Brown’s mail to John Schneider, another competitor. By the time, she noticed it, the damage had been done.

How can we avoid such blunders? Just read on.

Once upon a time, the letters were hand-delivered by the postman. Depending upon the distance and connectivity, they used to take days, weeks and even months to reach the destination.

They were replaced by electronic mail called e-mails because the emails took just a few seconds to reach their destination, even if thousands of miles away.

So, where is the problem? Like in the example given above, we may commit mistakes resulting in havocs, at times, in this communication. We forget that poorly drafted/ sent email can spoil the impression of the sender just because of a few missed/ wrong/ wrongly placed/ misspelt words.

Famous author Trevor Carss has said this about e-mails, “If it doesn't feel right to receive what you're sending, don't send it.” That is true. Make it a golden rule. Always weigh your written words.

Points to take care: Just keep these points in mind while crafting and sending your e-mail.

Every e-mail is divided into three parts-

·       Address

·       Subject

·       Text

Address- Be very clear about even a single dot, hyphen, space, capital/small letters creeping in or missing, while writing the e-mail address. The address should be accurate. I faced the heat because of overlooking such a small mistake because of which my urgent e-mail returned undelivered.

cc: If the same mail has to be sent to many people, separate their names by commas.

bcc: Sometimes, we have to send mails to many people but we don’t want addressee “A” to know that it is also being sent to the addressee “B”. In such a case, we have to click on bcc at the end of the address bar. The next address line opens up in which the correct e-mail address of “B” is to be written.   

Subject- Subject line is, probably, more important than the text area. The person reads the text only after reading the subject line. It is like reading the headlines in the newspapers before going into the details of the news item. The subject must convey sufficient hint of the text. It should not be too short. Subject like Bills cannot suffice. It will be easily understood, if the person writes “Payment of bill no. 123 dated 02.03.2020”. Even if the person is too busy to read the text, he or she can forward it to the correct person just after reading the subject.

Text: Be precise and to the point. Don’t go into the unnecessary details. The text should be relevant and connect to one particular subject. Send different mails for separate matters. Avoid mixing the issues.

Just like letters, every e-mail is either formal or informal and the text needs to be structured accordingly. However, barring the choice of formal or informal words of greetings and manner of writing, basics remain the same.

Formal Text: Let’s talk about the formal e-mail texts first. The text can be split into the following areas-

Greeting: In the formal text, the salutation has to be either “Dear Mr.____” or “Dear Ms.____” or “Dear Sir/ Madam”. It can be followed by “Greetings of the day” or “Good Morning” “Good Day” or “Good Evening”.

Thanks: If the e-mail is in response to our mail or telephonic conversation or personal meeting, then he/ she should be thanked accordingly for showing the promptness or courtesy or nice favourable response or warmth.  This step can be left in case of an introductory mail.

Purpose: One should come to the purpose in a straightforward manner without much ado. If it is the first communication, proper reference must be given. If it is regarding employment or some business purpose, a reference to the source of information is required. It can be “I am writing in reference to….” If it is through some commonly known person, his or her name should be mentioned. After that, the purpose should be stated in small and easy sentences.

Closing: Just before ending the mail, the addressee should be thanked for his or her patient reading or cooperation. A formal sentence like “I look forward to hearing from you” is always welcome. In the end, phrases like “Best regards” or “Warm regards” or “Sincerely” should be used before the sender’s name.

Informal Text: As mentioned before, the only difference is in the words used for greeting and salutation. You can be more informal in the choice of words, such as “Hi____, how do you do?” The endings can have the words like “Cheers” or “Enjoy your day” or “Bye for now”.

Takeaways

E-mail can become easy mail if we adhere to its golden rules. We must differentiate between the formal and informal mails. While writing the email, we must question ourselves, “Is it good enough to be sent?” Then and only then, we will value others’ time and write the perfect ones. In the next part, get 8 useful tips.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/improve-e-mail-writing-skills

https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/career-english/write-perfect-professional-e-mail-english-5-steps/

 

 #PerfectEMails #WritingPerfectEMails #WritingPerfectEMailsForAllOccasions

The author hopes the article to benefit all the readers. What do you think about it? Please post your comments in the comments box on the blog. You can also mail me: vermarajesh55@gmail.com. 

 

 

33.b. Only 8 tips for that perfect email

This is second article of the 2-articles series on emails. Please also read first article, “33.a. Doesn’t email mean easy mail?” on this space.

Everybody thinks that writing email is very simple. Millions of emails are being sent daily but still, if we adhere to the following 8 tips, our emails will shine out.

1.     Nobody has time: That’s a blatant fact. Nobody has time to read your long story. They would like to finish it in a jiffy because their inbox is full. They are out to delete mails that are too long/ cumbersome/ distracting/ taking their precious time. Use simple, short sentences to express your point precisely.

2.     Use subject line wisely: Your subject should say it all. The reader would appreciate if he or she understands it just by reading the subject line. It may be in your good interest as well as it may be forwarded to the right person immediately.

3.     Be polite: No, no, I am not asking you always to be formal (Dear Sir/ Madam) but you can be polite in your language. It will show your class and not offend the addressee. Rude language may force your mail to be sent in spam or deleted.

4.     Read before you press the SEND button; Don’t hurry up for pressing this button. Always give a careful reading after finishing the mail. After all, we are human beings, prone to making mistakes of typos, punctuation, syntax, usage of wrong words/ phrases. There is no point in repenting once it is sent to create a mess.

5.     Keep to the given subject: Nobody is interested in reading to the additions like “I also take this opportunity to draw your attention to another point i.e._____” If need be, send another e-mail for that.

6.     What are the bullet points for? If your text is getting longer and you can’t help it, you can at least it in different sentences each marked with a bullet point. It will look neat and readable.

7.     Use good space: It does not cost anything if you give a proper space in between the sentences. Good readability will support your cause.

8.     Be clear and expressive: The addressee should be able to immediately decide after reading the e-mail about his or her action to be taken. It will happen only when you are clearly giving the message.

Takeaways

E-mail is a very important way of communication. It should do only that and not miscommunicate or confuse the reader. It should be sent on the need-to-send basis i.e. it should be sent only when required. The language should be clear and precise, taking full care of the other person’s precious time. The author has given all possible information on the subject and would recommend

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/improve-e-mail-writing-skills

https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/career-english/write-perfect-professional-e-mail-english-5-steps/

 

#PerfectEMail #WritingPerfectEMail #HowToWritePerfectEMail #TipsToWritePerfectEMail

The author hopes the article to benefit all the readers. What do you think about it? Please post your comments in the comments box on the blog. You can also mail me: vermarajesh55@gmail.com. 

32. A very Happy Teachers’ Day

 

Who is a teacher?

The Bible of Internet search-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teacher) describes Teacher or, an educator as a person who give the following to  his or her students:

• Knowledge

• Competence

• Virtues

Teachers’ Day- 

Teachers’ Day is celebrated to commemorate the birthday of the luminary scholar; teacher and philosopher par excellence; and a widely regarded statesman, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. 

A brief life-sketch of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Early years-Born on 5th September, 1888 in Tiruttani, Chittoor of Today’s Tamil Nadu, he was a brilliant scholar. He completed his High School from Voorhees College, Vellore; graduated and did Masters from the esteemed Madras Christian College just at 17 years of age. 

Academic Journey-Indian Philosophy especially, Srimad Bhagavad Gita and Vedant, was deeply-rooted in him. He went on to write theses, articles, books and treatises on the subject, which are cherished by the academics all over the globe. His distinguished career covered-

• Teacher of Philosophy at the famous Madras Presidency College. 

• Professor in the renowned University of Mysore, University of Calcutta and also at the Manchester College.

• Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University 

• Professor at the prestigious University of Oxford 

• Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University till 1948.

Political Milestones-It was the time of great political turmoil for India. Dr. Radhakrishnan was not unaffected. However, his political journey was a result of his brilliant academic career and brilliant work on Hindu culture. 

He traversed the following route-

• 1946-52-Represented India in UNESCO

• 1949-52- Ambassador of India to the then Soviet Union

• 1952-1962- Vice President of India

• 1962-67- President of India 

Celebrating his birthday as the Teachers’ Day is a great honour to this illustrated son of India.

Role of Teachers

Dr. Radhakrishnan believed that the “Teachers should be the best minds in the country.” It is an apt statement also because primarily, it is the teacher who sculpts a raw boy or girl into a doctor, engineer, chartered accountant, management professional, architect, designer, administrator, civil servant or any other professional worth its name. 

For a child, the mother's lap is the first school. As he starts going to the school, the teacher takes over the dual role of a mother and an educator. These days, the teachers are required to take professional degrees in education (B.Ed.) for their appointment in all the good schools. Teacher’s role becomes very important to impart holistic education. These norms are enumerated in the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) announced by the Government of India. Please read the author's article “27. NEP 2020-What does it really mean?” on his blog: Education 2020 (lInk: eduofday.blogspot.com).Thus, the teacher’s role becomes multifarious. He or she has to prepare the student in:

• Academics (Various subjects)

• Sports

• Group Discussions and Debate

• Co-curricular activities

• Skill-sets

• Ethics

Besides, the teacher also has to go beyond the formal duties to act as a friend, philosopher, guide and counsellor for the student. A reference may be made to the author’s article “18. 15 basic qualities to make you a star primary teacher” on his blog: Education 2020 (lInk: eduofday.blogspot.com). (After pressing this link, you will reach on the blog. There you need to write the title “18. 15 basic qualities to make you a star primary teacher” in the search box to open it for reading it).

Following qualities are expected in a good teacher-

• Professional qualifications

• Subject knowledge

• Enthusiasm

• Interaction with the students

• Well-versed with the pedagogy

• Patience

• Discipline

• Communication

• Friendly persona

• Ethical behavior

 

Takeaways

 

Teachers’ day is an occasion to remember the important role of the teachers in the life of a normal human being. Teacher becomes the medium for imparting education and culture in a person’s life. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan set up the high standards for the teachers that need to be emulated in the true spirit.