The Extraordinaryness of 2012

Finally a good time to write my year in review. There has been much happening in the past few days, weeks that have made everyone jump out of their seats. But today I find peace of mind and happiness enough to write about my year. Specially since I have found a soundtrack to the end of the year. So here we go!

I think I can term the year as extraordinary. For better or worse.

Better, mostly to do with school, of course. But that’s great, isn’t it? The best parts of my year, my life are to do with my work. Really. I cannot tell you how satisfied and content and happified I feel because of my class. They are my kids. Not just my class actually, but the other kids in the school, too. They’re amazing. Who knew that kids could be so amazing. I never liked kids before. But these kids, random kids from Mehrauli, extraordinary. Just plain extraordinary.

The push me. They motivate me. Inspire me. I came to teach them how to be compassionate, how to be curious and confident, how to distinguish between wrong and right, how to make choices, how to respect and be responsible, how to love and be happy. And I can be certain that I haven’t taught them as much as they have taught me about these things. It sounds cliched, but when you’re there and you do all of this, you understand what these cliches really mean.

It takes a different level of compassion and respect to try endlessly to save the life of a baby squirrel from a filthy drain during the rains, or to pick out baby rats from the garbage and into the warmth of your glove after someone killed their mother and threw them out in the cold or to stand out in the cold rain while you give your umbrella to a poor man to reach a bus. It’s extraordinary levels of compassion and respect.

In Perfect Lines

With Illustrator Petr Horacek

It takes an extraordinary level of confidence and curiosity to be able to hold fluent enthusiastic conversations in a different language with a famous illustrator and other strangers from another country who are masters of the language. It takes an extraordinary level of love and happiness to come to school with the biggest smile on your face after a sleepless night courtesy your abusive alcoholic father. Or when your house is razed and you’re homeless for a couple of days but no one ever gets to know because you don’t let that smile fade or miss school. It takes an extraordinary level of knowing right from wrong when in a sophisticated ‘richly’ educated crowd you distinctly stand out and are appreciated for the exceptional way you carry yourself in public. or when people come specially to ask your teacher which school this is because they children are just extraordinary.

It’s just extraordinary levels of awesomeness.

My Girls. Mehek, Rohini, Shivani, Khushi

Lokesh

Hasim and Half of Satyam’s Face

This year saw Khushi overcome her anger and insecurities and turn into an extraordinary happy little responsible English speaking girl. Lokesh and Rohan breaking their number sense barrier and turning into confident extraordinary maths problem solvers. Mehek turning into an extraordinary story teller and an extraordinarily eloquent English speaker. Hasim and Satyam overcoming their chronic shyness to speak out in English in class and thus completing their journey into become spectacular and extraordinary individuals.

The kids planned their own trip to the Planetarium. They sat in perfect discipline while the whole school erupted into restlessness during the Independence Day celebrations. They without hesitation considered it their responsibility to clean off the school courtyard after a dirty lunch day to help Babu Bhaiyya. They laughed and they talked and they were just happy, confident, extraordinary kids. I am so proud of my class.

Rohan’s Family. Abhishek. Aman. Extraordinary.

And then outside class. The other kids of the school. Learnt to walk in perfect lines after assembly, instead of stampeding. They crowded outside my class begging me for extra classes. Came diligently to learn English. There was Sagar with his extraordinary warmth and happiness (and naughtiness!). Kaish, who finally stopped running away from me and started waving from the other end of the corridor and stayed for hugs.  And Tisha and Tinu who always stopped by for smiles and high fives. The nursery kids running in to show their new cap or just for a hug. Nitish and Priyanshu hanging on to me. Rahul who got his father to come and ask if he could come for extra classes. Aman who let go of his lack of confidence to come to relearn how to read and write. And Jatin. And Yatendra. And Aman. And Salman. And Pooja and Rupam. And Lucky and Ankush and Ajit and Sahil. And all these other little kids, all they want is just some niceness.

Ankit

And of course, my special kid, Ankit. Who has given me a new purpose in life. To make sure that talented extraordinary kids don’t lose out on opportunities their circumstances prevent them from getting. To make me understand that some children just need a little going out of way to give them multiple chances to make reformations.

I don’t know what I will do without these kids. And that is why I am scared to get into 2013. Because 2013 means that I will have to leave these extraordinary people behind. I don’t want to. I can’t.

In other extraordinary moments of my year, I managed to actually travel to Europe. Yay. I spent three weeks in London with Niru, with little trips to Scotland and Paris. I can’t believe it.

London

London is not a city I ever saw myself go to or enjoy. But I loved it so much. It’s really something. I spent travelling the city alone and never feeling that I am in a new place. It’s welcoming and pleasant and warm. Maybe it had something to do with the rare sunny weather I experienced during my time there. It’s a city meant to be enjoyed alone. It’s extraordinary.

Vast Open Spaces in Dundee

And after hearing about Scotland all my life because of the blissful time my parents had when they lived there, I actually went to Scotland. With Sanjana. Such perfect company for such a trip! We walked endlessly in Inverness, an extraordinary little town in the highlands. In search of vast open spaces. Or rolling hills. (Ah! She just called right now to tell me she’s getting married!! Timing and more happiness!) We didn’t find our rolling hills but we had a such a great time walking around and resting for some apple cider. Then we went to Dundee. The place my parents lived. And with our dear friend Google Maps, we walked on empty streets to reach the house they lived in. And we sat by the River Tay (a name that excited an 11 year old Hanson loving me) and ate horrid fish and chips and watched the sunset and ate fantastic dessert. And Edinburgh. After no people in the other cities, here were tons of people. But the place is incredible. And the shops on Royal Mile. And the Calton Hill. Love. Extraordinary weekend.

Sparkly Eiffel

And then there was Paris. You hear so much about it. How romantic and beautiful it is. You can’t help but be curious about it. And then when you have a boyfriend who can’t stop talking about it because of the time he lived there. But let me tell you, when you watch the Eiffel Tower in the dark, sparkling like diamonds, there are few other moments or sights that are as extraordinary. It is just spectacular. Then you’re sitting across it, sipping super market wine and taking in the moment because it’s just such a stellar moment. And then you spend a night out partying with locals, of course my usual self protested the proposition, but it turned out to be another remarkable experience. And walking around the city. Paris is quite extraordinary.

But what a splendid summer. Really. Extraordinary.

Corbett

Goa

I also happened to make short getaways to Corbett and Goa this year.  Blissful and peaceful. And my god, what food I ate in Goa. Would only go back for the food.

Then we saw Radhika after two years. Meeting Saunain people is always extraordinary. (I am starting to feel that my over use of extraordinary is dumbing down its value, but I don’t mean for it to.) And then I did not meet Nitesh all of this year, which was rather unextraordinary.

Leia

And of course, my extraordinary little girl has grown up into an expressive, loving, opinionated big cuddlebomb cow.

Diwali

Then this year, for the first time in more than a decade I celebrated Diwali willingly and lovingly with my friends. With Niru’s family and Nikhil. And Wine. It was extraordinary. The chill. The crackers. The laughs. It was so celebratory. It was so happy.

On a non personal note, the ending of the year for this city has been extraordinary. It took a horrific gang rape of a young girl for the women of the city, the youth of this city to finally stand up and say we have had enough. I am usually a critic of such movements and a general supporter of the government. But this time was different. This movement we’ve seen in the past few weeks has had a genuine show of frustration and exhaustion and anger from everybody. Though this girl was one of the many women who is subjected to men’s show of power and brutality, she changed the way everybody looked at these issues. Of the way men treat women. Her story pained and moved us and the day she died, we teared up and felt the loss like its our own. People tried to boycott the movement with their own agendas but I know how we women feel in this city. We’ve had enough. Nobody can push their dumb ideologies and make us feel better.

And the government. My god. How insensitive and disconnected can you be. So disappointed by their facelessness. But I know what a failed leadership looks like. And I can’t be a part of it.

I didn’t go out to India Gate or Jantar Mantar to show my solidarity with the movement. But I am determined to my extraordinary best to do my part. And thanks to my Teach for India experience, my anger and frustration isn’t directionless anymore. I know what to do. How to make a change. And I will.

2012 was a year of extraordinary display of love and happiness and passion and humanity. It was a beautiful year, barring a few hiccups.

Here’s to a 2013 where I promise to make every minute count, to not get lost in the mundaneness of life, to fight for things I believe, to make life easier for others, to love wholeheartedly, to live out all that I want. There is going to be a lot of difficult change in 2013 but I hope that  all that has happened this year will make it easier.