Working With Jinta's Rocked My 2024!

2024 was a gratifying year by all means. I always knew I wanted to be a trainer. In fact, I started out as a training manager and a trainer at Corporetta with my mentor Dr.Vipin Roldant, way back in 2012. Two years down the line, I started feeling like my career wasn't going anywhere, for various reasons. First one being, I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted teach. I also didn't know what I wanted out of job (at that time online learning was at its nascent stage). Coupled with lack of faith in myself, i quit in the year 2014 and jumped in the latest fad at that time, which was digital marketing. There was no strong sense of purpose (apart from the money of course!). After half heartedly working with a few companies and sitting through countless "make money online" "side hustles" without fully committing to any of it, I started wondering what the hell am I supposed to do. On top of it, I was hospitalized with a major health issue in 2018. After battling with it for a couple of years came Covid, where nobody's career was going anywhere. 

Cut to chase: 2024. 

I got fit with yoga and meditations, thanks to god and my Grand Master Choa Kok Sui and his trainers. At around august, I started getting these ads on Facebook which said, "English language trainers wanted" or "Teach English online". The inner voice inside me just jumped and told me "just try it, Maybe all those years of going through countless books and hollywood material would finally mean something". I was always good at figuring out how to do something (maybe not "what", all the time). Also, I was good at impressing people at the interviews.

There were 3 interviews in total. I got shortlisted at SpeakEazy IELTS & OET Academy. But there was no contact after that (I hate it when they dont give a reason!). Then came English Mithra. They said, they were not hiring people above the age of 28 (wierd! I know). Finally came Jinta’s English Classes where I absolutely rocked the interview! 

The orientation and trials went pretty OK, I guess. The video recording didn't work during the first one and I was off my mood during the second. Then they started giving me regular students. It wasn't always smooth sailing. couple of students didn't like my style and requested a change of trainer (My ego gets a massive hit when they do that), once I made an error in judgement regarding his needs and I failed miserably with another. 

But, one thing I've learned is that training is not about "you". It is about them, "Learner focused", "Performance based". It is about getting them to perform. It is not some kind of information dump where you show off your knowledge and expect some magic to happen. You got to understand their needs, showing empathy, creating a positive relationship and environment, and letting them fly. The books "Telling aint training" and "Teaching esl for dummies' certainly helped a great deal.

I am a kind of person who dont bother too much about other people think of me (I know! my parents hate it too). All those yoga and meditation helps me "be in the moment. no past. no future". And then all those marketing, copywriting, "influence and persuasion" books started subconciously working its magic (A special shout out to Dr. Robert Cialdini and Blair Warren of "forbidden keys to persuasion" fame. I still wonder why people think reading self help book don't work). I started connecting with my students, really helping them and they usually have a great time with me. Trust me, I get the irony too: A person who dont care about making an impression, makes really good impressions most times. But such is life, full of contradictions. more on that later.

To add cherry to the pie. The quality team at Jinta’s English Classes sends me this email at the end of the year. This absolutely rocked my new year! Energised leaps and bounds! Thanks to my team Jeny james, Jewel Maria Jose, Manu George, Jintesh John and fellow trainers for all the help. Last but not the least, Thanks to my wonderful students. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS! (And to those who did, thanks for through my rant!) PS: Did not check for mistakes with grammarly or ai. So pardon my mistakes.

Meiyyazhagan review - A deeply moving character driven drama

Imagine a scenario where you are living in the city, away from your native place like the millions of Indians in the metro cities. You are attached to and have fond memories and attachments to your childhood home. What if you had to sell it out of necessity? The very fact that you had to leave was a very traumatic experience for you. You might be afraid of going back because you don’t want to reexperience those traumatic memories.

This is the internal conflict that Arulmozhi Varman (Arvind Swami’s Character) is facing in the movie. If you remember the director Premkumar’s 96, it was also a character driven drama with not much importance to the plot. It flows through the memories, conflicts and growth of the characters. Meiyyazhagan is similar in that vein. The main 2 characters, Arulmozhi Varman and Meiyyazhagan is extremely well fleshed out. The journey through their backstories, their conflicts, relationships and growth is shown with so much care that I found myself teary-eyed at multiple points in the movie. The dilemma one feels when another person knows you and you don’t remember them when you go back to your native place can sometimes become extremely awkward especially if you care about not hurting the feelings of the other person. The visual detailing of these conflicts makes this movie extremely relatable and emotionally impactful.

Premkumar also does not shy away from weaving in his political perspectives through Meiyyazhagan’s character. The conversations between the two characters include the need for protecting one’s culture and history. The point about avoidance of south Indian history in Indian school textbooks deeply resonated with me. Meiyyazhagan’s backstory also shows how political decisions affect the common man. I didn’t find the political subplots distracting as it moves smoothly through the conversations and backstories of characters. These conversations also deepen the bond between the characters which justifies the conflict faced by Arulmozhi Varman.

Now this is not a movie for lovers of fast paced action movies. The deliberate slow paced narrative can be off-putting for those audiences. I didn’t find the movie too slow as I had already prepared myself to watch a deeply moving character driven drama. I recommend doing that yourself so that you have a highly rewarding experience.