Monday, October 24, 2016

Freelancing for FirstPost: ISL 2016

Firstpost were willing to give me another chance to cover the Indian Super League for this year. I was not sure of attending all the home matches, but covering by watching on Television was still alright with them. So I began my second stint at Freelancing with a preview for Chennaiyin FC for ISL 2016.

Just before Chennaiyin FC had their first match, Firstpost asked me to pick some players to watch out for and I wrote on three players who could make a change to Chennaiyin FC this year. Soon the first Chennaiyin FC game was upon me. This was away at Kolkata. Chennaiyin came back from a goal down to take the lead and finally conceded a penalty to end the pulsating match in a draw. I wasn't happy with the Chennaiyin formation and actually wrote it as six takeaways. The headlines from now were not mine mostly.

My misgivings in the first game came true when Delhi Dynamos FC thrashed us soundly in the first home game. The Mendy-Riise partnership had to end. The defense, goalie and the manager were all under fire in the five takeaways that I wrote from the match. I couldn't make it to the stadium that day as I had some submissions to work on for the next day at my Elementary course.

Firstpost asked me to write on some early trends emerging from the first two rounds of ISL 2016. Initially I wrote it in a hurry and it turned out to be too short. So I beefed it up a bit and it came out after my analysis on Chennaiyin's home victory against FC Goa. I attended the match and was there at the press conference. Zico was flustered about signings made in his absence and was bullish about Goa's chances of recovering.

Marco Materazzi on the other hand, when I questioned on how Jeje and him felt about Jeje's omission, went on a tangent to explain some journalists all over the world aren't happy about team selections. It was a day when Chennaiyin, for the first time for any team in ISL, had Mehrajuddin Wadoo as captain and ended the game with 7 Indians. He later gave me a nose-cut when I called his formation a 4-2-3-1. It was a 4-4-1-1 apparently. Credit is due to him though for getting his formation right and I wrote my analysis praising him for the changes.

Then came two away matches. The first, a hard fought win against Northeast United FC for the first ever time in ISL history for Chennaiyin FC. The new found solid defense played a huge role and I had four more positives to write about from the match. Then came a 1-1 draw against FC Pune City. That match really emphasized that Chennaiyin FC can threaten with anyone really. This match saw the sixth different goalscorer from a sixth different assist provider  for what was Chennaiyin FC's seventh goal of the season in just 5 matches.

P.S: I will keep adding to this post as and when I write more.


Friday, July 29, 2016

Montessori and Me: Part IV Anecdote from Elementary Course.

Disclaimer: I would like to clarify that by Montessori, I mean the philosophy that Dr. Maria Montessori, an Italian doctor, put forth for helping the young minds of the world live in this World. I use the word live here because after all, quoting Dr. Montessori, education is a way of life.

The above disclaimer shall be repeated keeping in mind, new readers who might chance through this blog :). So plough straight ahead the next time :).

I'm in the middle of teaching practice as part of the Elementary Montessori course. This Friday as on all Fridays, the class I was assigned to, had a writing workshop. This is conducted by the adult who is the assigned Montessori directress or 'class teacher' of that environment.

This week, the adult talked about words changing when we simply take out a letter from it. One of the examples she gave was 'Without the 't' train becomes a rain'. She gave few such examples and when she read them out again the word 'becomes', she pointed out, was repetitive. She gave a couple of suggestions as to how she can change them. 'Without the 't' train falls like rain' was a change she suggested. Soon the children, who by the way are all six to nine year olds, quipped several ideas.

One of the youngest actually suggested the reverse. He said owl becomes a bowl. More ideas started spilling. Once the adult felt the children got the hang of it, she quickly disengaged and asked them to pencil down their thoughts.

After half an hour we got to read several sentences like 'Without the 't' hair flies in the air'. Another wrote 'Without the 'b' it rains but with the 'b' I have brains'. The children were busy writing. Those few who can't write fluently also tried hard.

This was in several ways a typical elementary approach to a lesson. The adult stayed long enough to give the key aspects of the idea. The children's imagination then took over to exploring the Language. Their ever strong 'herd instinct' pushing them to try even when they may not be ready. We were probably writing several dictation tests when we were that age.

I was sitting and listening to the adult and soon my pen wanted to try out a few lines. I thought 'Without the' was also repetitive and so started writing lines like that of a poem. And lo! When I re-read the first eight lines I thought of our favourite panda Po and finished the poem with him in mind.

Though, an endless thought
Read a mouldy bread
Prays to the rays of sun
Sways to normal ways.

Rides a cart to make an art
And grow a row of hair
Steep went step after step
To an abode that Bode well.

Ahead with a head on top
Came a pot, oh not! Po!
To fall in front of all
And they all bowed to Thy.

If this is what happened to a twenty-eight year old who didn't have such rich early experiences, I wonder what to expect off the intellectual explorers of six to nine when they grow up.