"Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?’’ I sighed, when others were busy with Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Donne, Coleridge and more, I knew nothing more than a ‘’Twinkle twinkle little star’’nursery rhyme. It was a recitation competition and I was a second grade student then. In fact, I couldn’t stand the smile on the judges’, teachers’ and my fellow students’ faces. Worst was the moment when they poked fun at me when I was about to finish the reciting. My ego was deeply bruised. I reacted by saying, "It is just a poem." They try to refute me and the teacher too supported them saying, "They are just songs." I wanted to say aloud "They are not mere songs, they are beautifully written words." But I was only a six-year old child then and had to keep mum.

I grew up, with growth my interest too grew in nursery rhymes. Despite being a mother of a baby boy, I still love nursery rhymes. It was last year, when a Swedish academic cleared my confusion, which I have been carrying with me for years. Very recently a renowned lyricist, Bob Dylan, won the Nobel Prize for his literature work, which piqued my curiosity to learn more about nursery rhymes - now I know why nursery rhyme writers deserve a Nobel Prize.

I believe it would have made a huge difference if a word of encouragement was showered open me as a kid, but I had to wait till sixth grade to get the first word of inspiration, which I will cherish all my life. It was my language teacher who found a piece of paper in which I had scribbled a few words that sounded like a poem. In fact, when this very piece of paper was found by one of my classmates, who always bullied me, made fun of my writing.

Though most of my classmates abhorred the language teacher, nevertheless I liked her. Her encouraging words really motivated me to move ahead in life. Perhaps she knew how to motivate and appreciate students' who show interest in poem. I would be always grateful to her, who, while correcting my mark sheet, read out loud the poem so it would be an example for my classmates. The loud reading of my poem by my teacher made my classmate give me a big round of applause, which really humbled me. That was the time when I fell in love with rhyming words. I found beauty in authors such as Conon Doyle, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Dickens, Sidney Sheldon, Herman Hesse, Dostoevsky , Khalil Gibran, Sartre, Camus, Kafka and many more. It is when I learned there is a world outside the world I was living, much prettier than I can imagine.

All this inspiration comes from the word of motivation that was imparted by the language teacher. Her few encouraging words really change the course of my life. Do you ever tell your son or daughter to concentrate only on their academic books? If not, don't even do that. Don’t enslave them to your interest. Let them enjoy what they love most in their lives. Try to appreciate what they love to do and encourage them to enjoy it more and more.

It is very important to expose our children to listening to good, moral story telling at a very early age. When they learn motivational stories at the early age, it will permanently remain with them. I recall, at my grandmother's home, she would always read out loud bedtime stories. Her favourite personality was Napoleon and her favourite book was Oliver Twist.

I have been hearing Charles Dickens’ from her from an age immemorial, that I wanted to read him. An old book of Oliver Twist was lying amidst the collection of books at home, which I read it while I was in my fourth grade, which was the first novel of my life.

My greatest challenge was mathematics. Mom tried her best to play board games with us. She would add up or multiply the number by rolling the dice, or the number of spaces we could move. My grandmother too would assign a role to us to recite tables till ten soon after our prayers. All these habits helped us to absorb basic of mathematics lesson. Even then I scored less in mathematics and it was blamed on my interest in poem.

It was few years back when I met a women who told me how she blended her son’s interest in music with mathematics. Her son hated mathematics. The mother encouraged him to learn music, both vocal and instruments. In the midst of him playing his key board, she would quoted him Pythagoras. Pythagoras said, ‘’ There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres."

The counting, rhythm, scales, intervals, patterns, symbols, harmonies, time signatures, overtones, tone, pitch are all connected to mathematics. It is about taking the kids out to a world where food is not just for their stomach, but also for their thoughts and emotions. These kind of teaching systems are what tour our children need today. I remember aftermath of the half year examination, while I was in my seventh grade, the nun who taught science, ordered some of us, who scored less in examination, to reach school half an hour early to study under the guidance of those who scored high. I was always an average student and in exams, I scored ten out of fifty. I don't have words to explain how I was hurt then. I always hate comparing myself with others, be it at school or at home. In school we were actually made to mug up the dictated sentences in the note book and write the same on the answer sheet. I actually used to forget words even after reading it umpteen number of times.

Actually, I hardly understood the meaning of whatever I read. Had the teachers explained the use of science and mathematics and then defined the complex nature to students, that may have helped them scored high. I wondered why the teacher who said I am dump in science and mathematics, never appreciated the high marks I scored in languages and social studies?