Ira is growing up, moving on from pre-primary to primary today. It was exactly 6 years (and 7 days) back that Ira was born I still remember being more concerned about keeping Ria (the elder one) occupied than anything else, it involved hoisting Ria onto my shoulders and taking her on a trip to the Mad over Donuts in Powai Hiranandani every afternoon and evening while mamma and Ira slept peacefully at the hospital. Ira didn’t mind back then also, she has been an extremely low maintenance, self entertained child from the get go. Much in contrast to Ria who upon being born decided post haste that she needed to now attach herself to her dad and that at all times her dad had to keep walking…. yeah the first couple of nights I had to walk a lot, with her in my arms, good thing that I was an athlete back then and did not feel at all tired even after three nights at the hospital. Ira on the contrary liked being left alone, she has an adventurous explorer streak to her which is very exciting, one would really love to tail her and find out where she goes.
Ira started playgroup at GCH on 19 June 2014. It was a natural choice considering we had had an excellent experience with Ria. Incidentally one of the teachers in play-group had also been Rias teacher earlier. Teachers and support staff couldn’t help but remark on the similarities between the sisters. Well these two are twins born 4 years apart is what I say…. the same amount of pulling out my hair is what I am doing all over again…. not much considering I have a pretty decent head of hair left. Naa they’re angels both of them and as parents we’re blessed. If anything we are the ones learning everyday how to be more generous and patient.
So Ira progressed through pre-primary almost without any incident. It was deja-vu for teachers and staff at GCH. But there are differences as well. The fact that Ira has been more of a fiercely independent person from the get go has meant that we barely noticed when she started teething, got out of diapers, started climbing the stairs of a slider in the playground unassisted, started riding a bicycle without trainer wheels (that was at 3 years of age and we were gob-smacked as were parents of kids twice her age then. She has grown up to be an extremely observant kid who notices the finer details. The school, teachers and the guidance she recieved here has served in a huge way to bring out qualities which to a large extent are missing in her parents, social interacctions. I rarely if ever talk to anyone, have difficulties making and staying friends for more than a little while and rarely if ever join in in social events. Sonali is equally shy and distant from social contact. One of the most remarkable thing that has happened to the kids of such social caterpillars is that the kids have figured out going into the field, making friends, helping other children, sharing oh yes that’s a big one sharing, and in general not being socially awkward. The teachers all along were the most important factor in this metamorphosis. Starting with Dhara, Tejal, Tejasvini maam in playgroup to Shraddha,Anita maam in Nursery to Shalini and Falak maam in Jr KG and finally Soumya and Juliena maam in Sr. KG., each and every one of you wonderful wonderful ladies has left an impact on the personality of Ira. She has grown beautifully thanks to your efforts. There are jobs and then there is teaching, that you all chose to do this and do it with your hearts in the right place is a boon for society in general and for us parents in particular. So yeah take a bow ladies you are wonderful.
Ira loves dancing! Oh the irony. Her dad was born with two left feet, her mom with two more, all four became filled with cement over the years and here we have a child who loves to dance. So much so that she’s actually convinced us to put her in a dance class (the search is on for a technically sound dance class). The encouragement from teachers, and in this respect I would specially mention Julina maam, has been the only reason responsible for this aberration (even Ria is not so much into dancing). An inflexion point in any event is when some drastic change occurs, you could relate to it as an abrupt U-turn while driving but this inflexion point was not as bizarre and disturbing. Julie maam has been the best thing to have happened to Ira so far, I am sure a lot of other children. She gets children and understands who needs what amount of impetus and in which area. I guess much later when Ira is an old lady she would still meet Demira and Lekha and Avika and Royan and Vedansh and everyone else and in variably the conversation would go to “Julie maaaaaaam!!!!”. She’s an iconic lady and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for having given so much to this job. Some people love what they do and Julie maam clearly is having a hell of a lot of fun, I, we are truly appreciative and wish Ira and Ria continue to get such dedicated faculty all along. Going by experience with Ria and Ira I for one am pretty sure they will get the best teachers all along and have the most amazing journey.
Yes there have been instances where I have acted impulsively and shot off mails to the management about some perceived irregularity or laxity however more often than not I have seen the logic after having a discussion with the Principal and teachers about the topic. I guess after 8 years of having seen me and my longish mails the management has also understood that I mean well and in the long run a symbiotic relationship is what really is desirable between parents and school. Let each one do their job the end result is a well rounded personality of the child.
So yes today Ira is graduating and as a proud parent all I can think, like Dory from Finding Nemo, “kid, just keep swimming, you’ve got the best at school you just focus on swimming along ahead”…..