Resting Today!

Am running mild fever. Have sent kids to school, that is a task as I have to be up by five thirty and start preparing their lunch and breakfast. Next, to get them out of the bed is more difficult. I keep repeating the 'look at the watch' phrase but other than me none of them does it. I give bath to the younger one and mostly end up feeding by hand. Bringing their shoes, water bottles , keeping their lunch boxes in school bags, combing their hair as they complain 'you are hurting my head'. Then, finally we march out to the bus stand.

Again I hear the constant chirping of migratory birds as if a thousand metal bells were jingling together. What music! Over the weekend we had many activities. Jayu, my daughter is interested in insects and takes a magnifying glass to look at them closely. She loves lady birds and a few days back we were looking at a greenish spider holding a little bee in its fangs. The spider left the bee and it fell down, it was dead so I kept it and another dead bee near the spider's web. Jasmine is blossoming all around and the mild fragrance in the nights is soothing. Jayu is learning to do 'fill in the blanks'. This is a new concept so I write on the wooden closet all the sentences and give her the options one by one to try out till we come to the right choice and then I write it n the blank.

I made ginger and black pepper tea and I guess I will have another cup, the fever is not down yet. This time I will add basil leaves.


I was at a seminar at IIT Delhi this Saturday,the very young IITstudents were so full of life. They talked about the various kinds of people. The amiable ones, the analytical, the drivers and expressive. They told of how one can identify the type and assume a behavioral change called 'the style flex'. Where one changes one's behavior slightly to match the others, to bring about clearer communication.

They had a chart that sad how you go ahead and mold your stance, like with a driver, who dictates the work and orders around, you have to maintain a rigid posture. Not dress informally and be more precise about your communication in case you are in the expressive or amiable category. Each category behaves in a certain way under stress and moves on to the reverse side, that is to the extreme opposite personality's stress behavior as the last resort. I just now got the sheet that I had misplaced where I had noted down the behaviors under stress. Here it is:

• The Analytical will go alone
• The Driver will start ordering around
• The Amiable will surrender
• The Expressive will resort to personal attack

At the breaking point:

• The analytical will resort to personal attack
• The Driver will surrender
  
• The Amiable will start ordering
  
• The Expressive will go alone

That actually is shown by a figure of 'Z' with the behaviors in the four quadrants.


We played a game. The whole auditorium was divided into teams of 11 and then some teams which had lower number of people split into others. We all were told to go out of the auditorium and then they said that we all are in NASA and there is a problem that the Earth was going to be hit by an comet in 40 minutes. Since there was no scientists available, we had to activate a missile with nuclear tip to save earth. This would be doe by typing the keys from one to forty without simultaneously pressing two keys.
First time we went in we saw the number cards lying on floor and some in the team simultaneously pressed two keys and we were out within two digits. Next time we planned and made a strategy and got till 29 in a row, the third time we thought we will be fast and sat on floor to reach the digits. We were the only team to finish it in 40 seconds. That was fun indeed.

Later the facilitator asked about the strategies he pointed out that the aim was not kept in mind and the individual group goals became very important. He pointed out that it was said that ten people could come in at a time and had we focused on that fact, we would have sent the same team again and again till we achieved the goal that was to save the earth.

Today, I also felt a deep urge to go on planting trees. I wish I could keep planting trees. I love them!