So here's a dilemma. A real tricky one.
With the countdown to our return to the UK having begun, a big question is the little one's education.
You may recall weeks spent last year applying for a place in a good Delhi school. The results were 50-50 - four successes and four failures. The little one got through in No.1 (Shri Ram School) and No. 2 (Springdales School) schools of South-West Delhi.
Though Springdales was closer to our place, Shri Ram was where friends from the little one's play-school were. More importantly, it was "the new Harvard" according to a Delhi-based American journalist.
In about two weeks' time, my girl would finish her tenure in the school. She has enjoyed going to the school and made many friends. Her class-teachers adore her and say "she is all her class-mates' best friend".
Each week, she has made sure she carries a "Show & Tell Bag" - sometimes two or three. And if a bag can't be arranged, she needs to know words related to the alphabet she is learning.
Drawing was her favourite activity when she started school. Learning new words - dozens of them every day - is the favourite activity now.
At dinner time, she loves to play the teacher. Mum belongs to the 'Girls' Team' and Dad belongs to the 'Boys' Team'. She chooses the alphabet. The teams come up with related words. You get a point - and occasionally, a high-five - for a right answer. For speaking without raising your hand, you lose a point.
The empty chairs on the dining table are occupied by invisible classmates. Mum and Dad can't hog the answers and credit. The invisible classmates need to have their moment of glory too.
It may just be a fear of the unknown, but her new school is likely to be one that doesn't fare too well in the League Tables.
The admission process in English schools is long over, and places in all the good schools allocated. Our application will be an In-Year Admission To Primary School - which generally results in a place in schools that still have places.
For us, it could very well be Thameside Primary School. The school is within minutes of our new accommodation and has where some of the little one's playmates from Caversham have enrolled.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills or OFSTED reported in 2006 that Thameside is "situated in a relatively prosperous area of Caversham, but mainly serves pupils whose social conditions may not be favourable".
The report gave the school 3 (Satisfactory) on Overall Effectiveness, Achievements & Standards, The Quality of Provision and Leadership & Management. The only 2 (Good) it scored was on Personal Development & Well-being.
Not much has changed since then on any of those accounts. Earlier this year, The Guardian placed Thameside at 25th position (out of 34 Reading schools) in Average Point Score list and 20th on the Value Added Measure. The latter is a measure of the school's success in shaping up a pupil from Age 7 to Age 11.
A middle-of-the-table existence isn't totally bad, but then again it doesn't inspire much confidence either. The Guardian recommends we don't break into a sweat - "League tables show only part of the picture of a school. The Sats tests as a method for assessing schools have long been controversial ".
The newspaper's advice to the parents is to talk to other parents and seek more information before judging and choosing a school.
Unfortunately, we are not in a position to choose. And how Thameside shapes up the little one - and nurtures her desire to learn - is something we will have to wait and see.
As a friend remarked cheekily, "I look forward to hearing your views on moving the girl from a First-Rated School in Third World to a Third-Rated School in First World"!!
17 September 2010
16 September 2010
Where is the chicken in this?
A few days ago, my wife happened to be in Connaught Place for some work.
With rains having cooled down Delhi, it seemed like a good opportunity to have lunch together.
I toyed with the idea of meeting up at Parikrama, a restaurant next to our office. At 240 feet, it claims to be "India's highest and Delhi's solitary revolving restaurant". Having been there twice this year, I can vouch for the breath-taking view that it provides of the city.
We landed up at Tao instead. It is located at a premises long occupied by Bercos, a popular Chinese restaurant and its promoters have "the experience of serving people since four generations".
Familiarity with group restaurants, like Zen and Chungwa, weighed heavily in our decision to visit the restaurant. Both the named restaurants serve nice Indian Chinese cuisine.
The restaurant menu described itself thus:
TAO is something elusive and evasive and yet it contains within itself, a substance.
It is a path or a road that leads you to a goal.
TAO is not the end but the means to the end.
The destination is determined by the path you adopt to reach it yet it.
As my better half looked at the menu, I looked around myself. The place seemed comfortable and spacious, though a bit more light would have helped.
The menu looked delectable and we ordered Sweet & Sour Soup, to followed by Pan Fried Chef's Special Chicken, Stir Fried Bean Curd With Vegetables Hunan Style and Vegetarian Hakka Noodles.
The soup came with a liberal sprinkling of some green leafy substance. On tasting, it turned out to be coriander leaves. I have to admit this is the first Chinese dish (yes, that includes every Indian Chinese meal I have had so far) that had coriander leaves in it.
On enquiring with the waiter, I was told "customers like an Indian taste in their dishes". He smiled when I said coriander leaves don't work with Chinese sauces.
The table next to ours was occupied by a young family. I didn't catch what they ordered, but the man suddenly screamed - "Where is the chicken in this soup? I had ordered a chicken soup? Ask the kitchen staff to get me a bowl of chicken pieces."
Quite different from our gentle query, this reaction attracted instant attention. The waiter rushed to the kitchen to order warm chicken shreds for the soup.
"And yes, make sure the main course has plenty of chicken too," the moment the waiter returned.
This customer was quite clear on what he wanted of the dish - irrespective of how the restaurant imagined it to be.
Unfortunately, it was a bit late to do anything about our order. The Pan Fried Chef's Special Chicken turned out to be spicy chicken in an onion, tomato and coriander gravy. There was nothing pan-fried or Chinese about this dish. The vegetarian dish of Hunanese origin also had to make merry with onion and tomato.
Thankfully, the Hakka noodles were along expected lines and none of the dishes tasted obviously of the flavour enhancer MSG. MSG is hard to miss in most Chinese restaurants in Delhi.
Our neighbour, meanwhile, was ordering the waiters around. "Hey, this doesn't seem to have any chili in it? And where are the vegetables in this dish?"
In the end, he didn't each much of what he ordered and asked for it to be packed. As did we.
The packing reflected the same professionalism and care that the food did. The restaurant didn't seem to have boxes, and put the leftover in cheap-looking white plastic bags.
Wish I had read the preamble a bit more carefully:
TAO is something elusive and evasive and yet it contains within itself, a substance.
It is a path or a road that leads you to a goal.
TAO is not the end but the means to the end.
The destination is determined by the path you adopt to reach it yet it.
I could have at least taken a path that avoided the restaurant completely!!
With rains having cooled down Delhi, it seemed like a good opportunity to have lunch together.
I toyed with the idea of meeting up at Parikrama, a restaurant next to our office. At 240 feet, it claims to be "India's highest and Delhi's solitary revolving restaurant". Having been there twice this year, I can vouch for the breath-taking view that it provides of the city.
We landed up at Tao instead. It is located at a premises long occupied by Bercos, a popular Chinese restaurant and its promoters have "the experience of serving people since four generations".
Familiarity with group restaurants, like Zen and Chungwa, weighed heavily in our decision to visit the restaurant. Both the named restaurants serve nice Indian Chinese cuisine.
The restaurant menu described itself thus:
TAO is something elusive and evasive and yet it contains within itself, a substance.
It is a path or a road that leads you to a goal.
TAO is not the end but the means to the end.
The destination is determined by the path you adopt to reach it yet it.
As my better half looked at the menu, I looked around myself. The place seemed comfortable and spacious, though a bit more light would have helped.
The menu looked delectable and we ordered Sweet & Sour Soup, to followed by Pan Fried Chef's Special Chicken, Stir Fried Bean Curd With Vegetables Hunan Style and Vegetarian Hakka Noodles.
The soup came with a liberal sprinkling of some green leafy substance. On tasting, it turned out to be coriander leaves. I have to admit this is the first Chinese dish (yes, that includes every Indian Chinese meal I have had so far) that had coriander leaves in it.
On enquiring with the waiter, I was told "customers like an Indian taste in their dishes". He smiled when I said coriander leaves don't work with Chinese sauces.
The table next to ours was occupied by a young family. I didn't catch what they ordered, but the man suddenly screamed - "Where is the chicken in this soup? I had ordered a chicken soup? Ask the kitchen staff to get me a bowl of chicken pieces."
Quite different from our gentle query, this reaction attracted instant attention. The waiter rushed to the kitchen to order warm chicken shreds for the soup.
"And yes, make sure the main course has plenty of chicken too," the moment the waiter returned.
This customer was quite clear on what he wanted of the dish - irrespective of how the restaurant imagined it to be.
Unfortunately, it was a bit late to do anything about our order. The Pan Fried Chef's Special Chicken turned out to be spicy chicken in an onion, tomato and coriander gravy. There was nothing pan-fried or Chinese about this dish. The vegetarian dish of Hunanese origin also had to make merry with onion and tomato.
Thankfully, the Hakka noodles were along expected lines and none of the dishes tasted obviously of the flavour enhancer MSG. MSG is hard to miss in most Chinese restaurants in Delhi.
Our neighbour, meanwhile, was ordering the waiters around. "Hey, this doesn't seem to have any chili in it? And where are the vegetables in this dish?"
In the end, he didn't each much of what he ordered and asked for it to be packed. As did we.
The packing reflected the same professionalism and care that the food did. The restaurant didn't seem to have boxes, and put the leftover in cheap-looking white plastic bags.
Wish I had read the preamble a bit more carefully:
TAO is something elusive and evasive and yet it contains within itself, a substance.
It is a path or a road that leads you to a goal.
TAO is not the end but the means to the end.
The destination is determined by the path you adopt to reach it yet it.
I could have at least taken a path that avoided the restaurant completely!!
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