Leslie's Laughs

 [Published in My Kolkata on 23rd June 2024.  Read Online .] Oh the games people play now  /  Every night and every day now Never meaning what they say now  /  Never saying what they mean Inner Circle made that song memorable for me. After an exhausting brace of election months we know we’ve been a part of these games, often as spectators or pawns. But that’s political.  This piece is about the games that we played in our youth and how they have transformed over the years. Facebook University informs me that for some 72 days which began a week or two ago, we are going to be treated to sports like never before - ICC World Cup, UEFA, Copa America, the Olympics - and for armchair sports persons this is good news!  Better news for TV channels and advertisers. In the good old days of 2-colour TV (Black and White) we preferred to be outside, missing the ads, lowering the TRPs and playing physical games. Or even indoors. At a friend’s house the other nig...

 [First published in My Kolkata on June 12, 2024.  Read it Online  ] [This piece is close to my heart and based on over four decades of practical classroom teaching, observation and working with teachers across the country.] “Hey Teacher, leave them kids alone / All in all you’re just another brick in the wall” sang Pink Floyd. “If you wanted the sky, I would write across the sky in letters… / To Sir, with love.”sang Lulu in the movie. I’m sure we have all met both types of teachers.  But this piece is on what makes teachers tick. I was watching a shared video of students of a Kolkata school on an exchange program in Australia. Delightful, made even more so by the brief appearance of an accompanying teacher stepping up on stage and doing a namaste. This got me thinking about teaching and “teachering” - a phrase I invented to explain the myriad things that teachers do other than transact a syllabus. As schools reopen after the vacation, teachers are invited to attend ...

 Originally published in My Kolkata on June 3, 2024  Read Online Fading Sounds [The author shares quickly disappearing memories of the sounds of his youth, some of which are metamorphosed into new audible avatars today. Have fun trying to hear the sounds again in your imagination, while having a little laugh alongside.] The first inkling I had that I was actually going a little deaf was the kindly doctor who put me through a series of “hear that?” tests and sadly indicated that my hearing was a little less than it could have been. I did not mention the years playing rock music. Of course, as you would guess, there’s an earful  of options available on the market, mostly battery operated and of a greater nuisance than those persistent telecallers selling you insurance or personal loans. My mother was clinically deaf and used a hearing aid - actually a few dozen before she had tried them all.  Her go-to strategy was to switch off when she wasn’t listening actively....