THE FIRST AVATAR OF THE THREE R’S

Once upon a time, the Three Rs meant Reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic.

Frankly most people have replaced writing by hand with typing and arithmetic has been replaced by god only knows what. And of course reading remains reading though the screen has largely replaced the printed word.

Teaching maths these days is no longer what it was when I was in school half a century ago. I don’t think Arithmetic is a separate subject any more. The children learn the basics of adding, subtracting dividing and multiplying with word problems etc without being told they are learning Arithmetic.

Anyways, like the French say, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”.

So it doesn’t really matter how you learn your numbers, eventually they all add up.

THE SECOND AVATAR

Then, during the dawning of the age of Environmentalism and Sustainability, the Three R’s came to represent.

It has remained the enduring theme for school projects over the past two decades and has become the default meaning of the Three R’s.

my current avatar of the three R’s

But according to me, the Three R’s are

Reality, Reality and Reelty

Yesterday, I was shocked to see how much my REALITY has changed. I was spending an enjoyable time at a high-end craft store when the earnest, young salesman, trying his hardest to sell us an exquisite piece of artwork, described it as a priceless antique at just 60 years old! I looked at him aghast. Heck! Since when did I become old , let alone ancient?

Only in the morning my granddaughter who was indulging me with a facial stroked my skin saying it was as soft and supple as a baby’s . How did it become wrinkled and crinkled by afternoon?

REALTY

A city’s demography changes every now and then largely because of the shift in Realty or property markets. Residential areas change, business districts relocate and the population changes accordingly. Slowly but surely, as residential buildings morph into commercial space, we will no longer bump into ordinary people like watchmakers and dressmakers or even regular folks who live in the nearby regular buildings. Gentrification, or more accurately termed ‘Redevelopment’, has transformed old established residential areas into slick glass-towered communities housing a completely different breed of people.

REELTY

Finally, the last R which is a word coined by me , is the Reelty we all get up to every morning ( yes , the majority at least ) that we all gravitate to when we switch on our mobile phones.

After checking the time, we automatically go to messages and sooner or later come upon a reel that leads from one to the next till we find that we’ve spent more than the second we had wanted to spend on checking the time !

What are your three R’s?

Do let me know in the comments below.

Ciao and happy weekend