A Walk to Remember...

Finally ! Yesterday I watched A Walk to Remember... what was it like?? ...umm its an Airy Movie... only a vague feeling lingers over...

A friend who had recommended the movie asked me which 'walk' is actually mentioned in the title? I thought about it. The title says : a walk which was worth remembering. In the movie , I feel, it was , when she walks to the aisle as a bride. The moment was dream fulfilling for her.

But there is more to my interpretation : A Walk which is worth remembering is when you walk into someone's life. You plan Nothing and as she says, God has bigger plans for us. He knew that she is sick and she needs someone and so He sent an Angel, who also needed someone who could show faith in him and make him confident. God has really better plans. It is the biggest miracle when we walk into each other's lives and touch their hearts. Nicholas Sparks knows simple and beautiful ways to teach about love, faith, hope and miracles. I loved one dialogue specially when girl who is suffering from Leukemia says, I didn't want any reasons to be angry with god. 

Writing and Living Poetry

I have to write it. Just a thought it is. But I need to pen it down. It begins with a question - Is a poet and the man are both different?

Let's hear Mr.Eliot, he has something to say on it. In brief, according to him, the man who suffers and the man who writes are two different men. A poet is a particular medium where different emotions,experiences, images, impressions come together to enter into a new combination.

Once I had read someone and luckily I got a chance to know that person closely. The poet appeared to be very different than his poetry. It compelled me to ask myself some questions: Should there be any similarity between poet and his poem? Is it necessary that noble poetry should be written by a noble mind?

I realized or rather accepted the fact that most of the times you actually dont mean what you write (specifically in poetry). If you were to ask one day later, you will not feel the same thing, in a same way, with the same intensity. You might even experience a complete change of emotion. Thus your poetry is a dishonest expression of your temporary honest emotion. The truth of poetry is not permanent, not temporary and may be both at the same time. But certainly you can not judge a man through his poem and a poem through the personality of man. When you meet a poet in real life , its like meeting two persons at one time. I am not sure though, I would have said the same thing for Dylan Thomas or Sylvia Plath.

Writing confessional poetry is the most courageous task on the earth. But once you begin to proud on it, the honesty is compromised at the altar of ambitious heart. Again, writing your personality into your poem is not that bad when you actually can hide it under your art.

Ogh! I am talking big today. But one last thing , Every writer, at his heart, aspires to be a poet. 

On Teaching : Not a Game and yet a Game

In my school days there was a strange thing that I wouldn’t be able to learn anything until I feign teaching an invisible audience. I loved the game. I would act like my favorite teacher. But imagine teaching real students and I would run ten miles away. But I didn’t. Am I a warrior? No, I am a poor teacher. No, in fact I am just a tutor. But then teaching is teaching whether you teach a student or two hundred.

Is it a pleasurable task? Yes, no , well sometimes yes and sometimes NO. I would say, choosing your students is important. If you are a tutor choose the very dull students. Bright and inquisitive students will not let you live and earn. And most important is to understand the “student psychology”. Yes! Recall the moments from your student life and you exactly know what students want from you. They want you to teach in a funny, informal way as if you are their friends. To take examples from real life. To laugh with them on their silly jokes (believe me a teacher has to be a good actor). To ignore their silly mistakes. Now even if they don’t think about this, you got to teach them through different mediums, for example, a video, a movie clip, photos, stories. It will give them good impression, a key to remember the original text or context, and a good change from text books. Most of the times you have to come down to their level to understand what they want and how they can get the most from you.

The best part of teaching is you come to know what you lack. Although its not as pleasing as it is when it is just a game, you can make it pleasing by thinking yourself a student, learning with them and making learn a fun.