We started the year by moving from Ulsoor, where we’d spent seven lovely years, embedded in the very gig-economy, pub-fueled life of Bangalore to the outskirts of the city, seeking a quieter pace, before the madness started.
A madness marked by packing, unpacking, moving in and out of houses…and mastering all kinds of household appliances. Each AirBnb (and we’ve been in quite a few this year) brought its own set of unique appliances, of which the ovens have made me feel every emotion from amusement and delight, to frustration and helplessness. I’ve never spent so much time poring over manuals and figuring out the modes and temperature settings, as I have in 2020.
I’ve spent a large part of the year studying students, how they learn, how they should learn, and obsessing about learning agility, to the point of seeing signs of this much needed skill even in Arya! And as I get ready to slide a tray of hors d’œuvres feuilletés into the latest oven (one that seems to run 5 degrees hotter than the display indicates), I think I can quite confidently declare that my learning agility has been proven without any doubt this year by my ability to master all these very different, eccentric and sometimes even temperamental ovens!
If each new AirBnB meant a new oven, it also meant packing and unpacking, something that is a cause of great stress to me even for a weekend trip! Making sure I was carrying everything important, not forgetting anything behind, not carrying something really pointless and frivolous, sticking to a certain weight limit, so that I can carry my own bags (it’s not always about the damned limits set by airlines – I mean really, why do people flying to America get to carry twice as much weight?) has definitely added some more gray hair to my head.
We moved again (hopefully the last move in a long time) last weekend. After spending the year packing and unpacking, I’ve learnt to pack very efficiently. If only I had learnt to master the stress that comes with it. Perhaps, a good objective for 2022?
PlainGeets 