Scarlet Writes

One winter morning, JoJo woke up alone in bed. He looked around but didn’t see his parents anywhere. He started to look for his mother. Just then, he saw his grandmother preparing breakfast in the kitchen. He asked for his mother but his grandmother replied, ‘Your parents have gone out for the day. It’s just us today and we are going to have a good day ahead!’ JoJo was excited to spend the day with his grandmother. They started by eating apples, scrambled eggs and pancakes for breakfast. JoJo asked, ‘What next?’ Then they went out to the garden to feed the pigeons and they chased butterflies and followed ants, picked up the flowers that had fallen on the ground to make garlands and did some cycling. Then he asked again, ‘What next?’ Then they ate lunch together and took a quick nap under the warm winter sun. As he woke up from his nap, he was surprised to find his grandmother ready with some of his favorite books and crayons and sketch books. They spent the next few minutes...

I teach Social Studies in Grade 8 and after teaching two lessons about Óur Past', I came to the conclusion that it was getting very boring. So me and my colleague decided to do a quick tour to Nuwakot and gather some more information by talking to the locals there and collect some photographs and videos to show the students in the zoom class. I knew that the palace was destroyed by the earthquake and it still hadn't been reconstructed so we were not sure if this was going to be a productive trip. However, the school management was very positive about us doing the trip and made necessary arrangements for us to go.  We designed a pre-trip sheet for students to fill in so that we could check their pre-knowledge about the place and its poilitical and historical significance in Nepal's history. It took us about 4 hours to reach the durbar square and upon reaching there, we spent about an hour talking to the priestess, Gyani Dangol, at the ancient Bhairabi Mandir and an offical w...

My favourite part of the day is when I go out for a walk with my son in the morning. Most days, that's the only time when I actually step out of the house. If we are lucky and have some spare time, we even come back from the walk and spend some more time playing outdoors.  The other day, we chased a lady bird and it was the first time that Chora had actually seen a ladybird so he was quite excited. Yesterday, a dog followed us and he wanted to play with it but of course I didn't let him. This one time I kicked a stone and he wanted to do the same but he just couldn't and I found it really funny.  Today, a shopkeeper asked him to come with her and he just went with her without even giving it a second thought. He even waved me goodbye happily. We also met two cats with green eyes who looked unperturbed by our attention. I find cats very strange. These walks are hardly 15 minutes but I really look forward to it everyday and I can tell you for sure that my son enjoys them too. ...

Covid-19 has yet again locked us inside our homes and as much as we may want to, it is hard to picture life going back to what was once so normal. It’s been five months and I feel like I have already forgotten how we used to spend our weekends. In this new reality, there are no boundaries between work hours and family time….weekdays and weekends seem to have blended well together. Days turn into evenings while all we do is stare at the screen and if you have a kid who demands all your attention, you might be feeling like you’re losing it all. Despite all the craziness, there’s no denying the fact that we have made some positive changes in our lifestyle and we are truly committed to continuing with it once the lockdown is lifted and (although the end is not in sight) pandemic is over. As we look forward to brighter, sunnier and better days ahead, I want to take a moment to be in the present and reflect on all the little blessings of my life and in a hope to connect with you all through ...

Recently I had an opportunity to participate in an online workshop series conducted by Empowerment Academy which was a wonderful opportunity for me to learn,connect with other fellow teachers and grow as an educator. As the workshop came to an end this week, I thought it was a good idea to compile my reflections of 3 sessions that I attended in the last 3 weeks. This is for me to keep as something to look back at when I feel like  and also I thought it could be useful for other teachers who are with me in this journey of teaching online.  Please feel free to message me if you want to know/ learn more about any particular activity that I have discussed in these journals.  Day 1 Reflection I enrolled in this workshop because I was struggling a lot finding ways to design activities that require students to work in collaboration with each other and that can promote critical thinking. I just couldn’t go beyond breakout rooms and think and share (without the pair). I w...

I just spent the last one hour trying to decide if I should start reading a new book or finish reading the newspaper or continue chatting with my cousins or get some sleep since I couldn’t complete my usual 8 hours’ of beauty sleep last night (not because my 1 year old son kept me awake but because I was watching a silly teenage drama on Netflix until 1:30am). Arghhhh! Everyday feels like an eternity, no different than the previous day. Wake up. Clean. Feed. Do the dishes. Laundry. Eat. Play. Wait for the next nap hour. Change the diaper. Take classes. Think about snacks all day. Work on my lesson plans. Check Assignments. Walk to the fridge 100 times a day. Repeat. And in between all of that when the baby decides to sleep, I cannot decide what I want to do. That’s exactly how the past 2 months have been for me. This lockdown has created an exhausting routine especially for women both emotionally and physically. Working from home while you are working at home doing dishwashing, ...

My son was only 11 days old when we had to take him to Teaching Hospital. The doctor did few tests and we had to wait for few hours until the results came in. So were in a room with a woman and her son who was there for his appendicitis treatment. 11 days postpartum with my child in an emergency room, I already had a lot of things to worry about when this woman asked me why I wasn't breastfeeding my child. She did have a lot of other questions such as why I wasn't wearing a patuki . Why I didn't have a shawl or a scarf covering my head? I didn't care to answer all her questions or dwell on what she was saying until the senior doctor showed up and asked why I wasn't breastfeeding. I don't know why but I felt like I needed to explain to this doctor that my 11 days' old child was struggling to latch properly and although I wasn't breastfeeding, I was still giving him breast milk. The doctor didn't look convinced with my explanation and asked which ...