Khruu Sican: Thai Language

To me, she is the definition of grace. In the way she holds her posture, picks her clothes, conducts herself, goes about her job.

I learnt with her for just one month but she left an imprint on me that will last much longer.

She is teacher extraordinaire, passionate about helping you learn the language well.  She is thorough, yet sensitive. Graceful, yet fun (not slapstick fun). She tailors her questions to you effortlessly, helping you learn better.

She is thoughtful and good at the reading the unsaid. She in honest and unfraid to expose her vulnerabilities without trying to earn sympathy votes.

She is real. She is grace under pressure.

The Girl at Lumpini Park: Aerobics

Outwardly, she is a skinny Thai girl, just about 5 feet tall. Pretty much unremarkable in physical appearance. That is, until she comes alive every evening at 1720 at the Lumpini Park in Bangkok, one of the 6 leaders at the free street aerobics.

She is fast, she is strong, she is sporty, she is fun, she is unstoppable. I don’t think there is a moment in those 30 mins that both her heels rest simultaneously.

I always try to find a spot so that I can follow her lead. After several sessions, I start noticing that I am not alone in her fan club. Yet, she gives me a smile every time and seems to be encouraging me when I am faltering with my rhythm. In her own unique way.

Her movements are contagious. You can’t help but want to join in. To do it well. To do it better each time. To get into the rhythm and then get lost in it.

I don’t even know her name. I don’t even feel the need to.

Khruu Lek: Iyengar Yoga

She has the body of an eagle. Agile, strong, powerful.  Taut muscles, soft skin.  And a spirit to match.

When she demonstrates an asana, I find myself focusing on just her ankle or her metatarsals, or the proportions of her leg, or her arms, or the straightness of her back.

She is gentle, yet firm. She pushes me a little further in every class. I feel connected to her in some strange way.  I want to do better because I know she is watching. I don’t want her attention on me to go wasted.

Years ago, on a trip to the Lourve, I saw the “Nike of Samothrace” statue with the aid of an audio guide. The statue came alive for me. I must have stood transfixed for 20-30 minutes, lost in her beauty. And she didn’t even have a head.

Khruu Lek is the Nike of Samothrace.

Teachers In My Life

Growing up, I had this sense of lacking inspiring teachers. I went through schooling, graduation and post-graduation, with literally 2 teachers who left an imprint on me.  That’s pathetic, to go through more than 100 teachers and have just 2 touch your life in a meaningful way. Or maybe I am lucky that there were at least two?

Thankfully, the urge to learn has been stronger as I grow older. And I am finding the most amazing teachers in places one would usually not look. This series is a tribute to those phenomenal teachers.  Who push and inspire me to be better, stronger and, reach higher.

How I won the scholarship without learning anything

In eighth grade of school, I won a Sanskrit Scholarship. A regional scholarship that felicitated students that had demonstrated a talent in Sanskrit language. Criteria? Every student who scored 95% + in their year-end examination scores. I remember feeling so chuffed about winning this scholarship. The school arranged to take the 5 winners to the felicitation venue where we found ourselves amongst hundreds of other students from schools across New Delhi. Our moment of glory comprised to being called upon the stage and being handed a certificate along with an envelope containing Rupess Five Hundred, not an insignificant amount for an eighth grader, possibly the first money we had made ourselves.  I felt good about it for weeks at end, if not months.

In the 20 odd years than have gone past since then, I have found myself thinking many a times about this one classmate. A lanky girl with silky soft hair tied casually in a hip length plait. She had few friends and was considered aloof and rude by many. Finding every opportunity to burn her skin darker still at the basketball court, one of the odd girls who chose that sport. Scampering around school corridors in winters without bothering to put moisturizer on her skin, her brown skin flaked with white due to dryness. She had chosen Sanskrit as her third language too.

In our eighth grade, we had to start writing short essays in Sanskrit. There were the standard topics – an animal, popular Hindu festival, a city, a famous leader etc. The unstated expectation was for the students to refer to guides (un-regulated coaching books available outside of prescribed school curriculum) and copy out those essays word for word. For the purpose of examination, there would be a choice of 5 essay topics. If you were a smart student, you would have seen enough test papers of the past to identify 4-5 topics which gave you a reasonable guarantee that atleast 1 of them will show up amongst the 5 choices in the annual examination. So you memorize these 4-5 essays, cross your fingers, and vomit it out on the exam day.

It made life simple for our Sanskrit teacher as well. Our homework submissions during the year were largely error-proof. Errors, if any, were mostly because of the student’s laziness in copying from the “guide” books. Imagine her plight when this lanky girl submitted one original essay after the other. They were full of mistakes as she learnt to put the language to use. I remember seeing her assignments when they came back after evaluation. The pages would be blood red from the teacher’s pen. The teacher wasn’t amused. The girl however was determined.

She was the only one who really learnt the language. No wonder she never got that scholarship.

two Buddhas too many

Bangkok loves its shrines, spirit temples and deity statues. It would be surprising to cross 100m without stumbling upon one of the three. It wasn’t surprising then that Lumpini Park, the 142 acre breathtakingly beautiful green lung of the city, should decide to add a second Buddha statue.

But why on Earth would the wise folks managing Lumpini decide to place the only other Buddha statue right next to the existing one? This was clearly mindless bureaucracy at work. Or yet another example of the crazy Thai ways. Or both.

And then rolled in yet another Wednesday evening. As I walked past this new statue during my evening walk with my toddler leading the way, I noticed that the entire periphery of the statue is draped in beautiful slender fragrant white flowers. Flowers that have fallen from a tree whose canopy was exactly overhead the statue. 

It wasn’t bureaucracy after all that decided the statue’s placement. Nor was it the “crazy Thai way”. It seemed to be guided by faith or beauty or both or something else altogether. But there was logic, quite possibly linked to that beautiful flowering tree which I am yet to notice elsewhere in the park.

It was a gentle yet firm reminder to not be abruptly dismissive of something because it seemed illogical to me. To be patient for the logic to reveal itself. To be tolerant even if it didn’t.

It irks me when people are dismissive and condescending of indigenous/ traditional practices without trying to get to their heart, their unique logic. Yet here I was, guilty of the very same when faced with a new environment.

Lesson (hopefully) learnt.