2016 at a Glimpse

2016 was a deciding year for me. The year gave me new insight into my surrounding, into myself and overall into life and its purpose. If we don’t transform ourselves in the journey of life, we get stuck into a stagnant pool of mundane existence. As I transform myself, life never stops surprising me! Well, Parisa had her significant moments too. I am happy that she is growing up as an active, spontaneous, sometimes adventurous, and charming girl. Sometimes it is amazing how she can offer me solace, energy and a driving force to move on. Life without her would be dreary.

Parisa loves helping me out in experimenting with food. She tried making pancakes, baking cakes. . .

Parisa enjoys performing on the stage and she had the chance thrice in 2016 – cultural day at her school where she performed in choreography in a Bangla song, summer club’s final program where she performed songs and choreography in a Japanese song and finally her graduation day at school where she performed song and rhymes. Just like Parisa, I experienced my share of thrill as well when I performed with 3 other colleagues in a short choreography with a Bangla movie song at the 12 Years Foundation Anniversary program of the Department of English of DIU on 31^st October 2016. It was exhilarating and entertaining. Raj and I made our informal amateurish guitar-song performance public and received much praise. We posted two covers on social media and got very warm responses from friends.

We had the chance to go on picnics in the winter time during early 2016 – one school picnic and another new presenters’ picnic. It was interesting to notice how Parisa took an active interest in picnic games and performances and took it to heart when we couldn’t qualify for a prize. Khala had been planning for a long time to take us to her village Palla in Magura. This trip in March was spiritually and mentally very satisfying! I was taken aback by the simplicity and spirit of the people of the place, and by the role women played in social gatherings. By the end of the year I found myself becoming the moral parent of a girl named Tarsina (rhymes with mine) who lives in Magura.

We also took Parisa to places like Greentech Resort for celebrating the Bangla New Year, Reverie Resort, Cox’s Bazar and Nepal once again. I had a conference presentation in Nepal in February and another at ULAB in May 2016.  The first one went fantastic and I made a friend named Sukmita; whereas the second one was unnerving with the presence of an academic giant in the audience. I also went to Chandpur for conducting a workshop on ‘Activities for Large Classes’ for the school-college teachers in August. Thanks BELTA for considering me as one of the facilitators. The trip was intellectually rewarding.

I also participated in couple of workshops/seminars, a few to be mentioned are –Providing Effective Feedback, Use of Bangla Phonetic Alphabet (BPA) for Teaching English Pronunciation, Assessment for Learning, Self -assessment and improvement plan, Use of Technology in the ESL Classroom. But the one which left a remarkable impression on me and connected me to the year-end thoughts and resolution is the Workshop on Universal Human Values & Professional Ethics conducted by a group of Indian professionals. This made me look into the purpose of our doings from an entirely different perspective. My temperament changed as well! I developed a better understanding and my tolerance level increased which in turn helped me in my anger-management.

Parisa took up skating lessons in February and showed remarkable progress. 

Pori’s bonding with her two friends i.e. Nabiha and Labiba, and her cousin Arshia evolved. Now as I overhear their conversations or watch the games they play or listen to the songs they love, I understand that Parisa is moving on in her life from being a kid to being a girl. I also made conscious efforts in improving my relationship with my two friends and in laws and I think I fared well.

I also arranged a get together of old students at my place. The fact that we are still connected and I could ask for their help is so rewarding! Teaching has its rewards - not in cash but in kinds. 

As I couldn’t be there for Parisa’s birthday in 2015, I made lot of plans for 2016. The birthday was a bang and I made her cry at the end!

The year also had its downsides. The first to mention is the disastrous promotion board interview in December which imprinted these words in me for life – ‘You are like a stone which doesn’t roll and gathers moss’. No matter how harsh this sounded then, it bore some degree of truth in it as I look back and analyze my personal and professional lives, and see how stagnant I became even though people in general found me rolling and moving at a fast pace (the impression I created with my fast-paced busy life!).

In 2016 it hit us that Maya is growing old. Her teeth started falling out and we are mentally prepared that we might have the bad news within a year or so . . . Two friends moved away due to different personal reasons, and I strongly believe that I had to contribute less to the changed circumstances. It’s disconcerting nonetheless as I was (still am to certain extent) mentally and emotionally dependent on them. In addition, two colleagues moved out of the country and migrated to Canada.

The year ended with an eye-opening trip to Charfassion, Bhola which just like the picture in which I am looking at the sunset made me look forward to the year 2017 after closing a few chapters of 2016.