This Teachers' Day - My Checklist
A mountain of checking the speeches in writing A board with quotes where hyperbole floats More boards afloat where clichés bloat A Hasya Kavi Samelan, with goofed up syllabication Posters on teaching deprived of any meaning A saree in clutter with hurried up flutter Celebration ! Celebration ! and more jubilation Sweating and panting and endlessly wondering Am I really the one For whom this all was done !
Dove's Flight
We seat ourselves at a comfortable corner from where stage is clearly visible. It is the scholar badge ceremony where Dove is going to get her scholar Badge for achieving excellence in academics. My heart is surging with pride and mute satisfaction that she could do it all on her own despite a mother lost in her own tangles.
"Get up Anju, time for school”, my mother’s soothing voice called. “No mummy its so cold outside. Besides everything taught is Greek to me. Why can’t you tell Daddy to let us stay home”. I yelled in desperation. “What will happen to your school going habit if you stay home all the time. Now hurry up and get going.” Reluctantly I got up.The school dance troupe is presenting a dance ballet and we sit enthralled. It’s time now for school choir to sing Vande Matram and I sing along at the discomfort of the one sitting next to me.
“After the tête-à-tête you will have to sing a song of your choice, on our radio show on India.” The radio Prague presenter informed. Ee mere vatan ke logo zara aankh me bhar lo paani…resounded the radio station as the programme came to its end.She comes fluttering by at the announcement of her name, looking desperately for her Mom and Popsy from the stage, oblivious of the presence of Ashok Ganguly the Chairman CBSE. Not able to spot them in the crowd of parents a faint disappointment is traceable on her face, otherwise beaming with happiness.
“Well you are not as dumb as you pretend to be. I saw your drawing on the school main board. If you try a little harder, you can easily get a yednicka,” challenged my Czech science teacher. The next day I got up at four and with my photographic memory mugged up the whole chapter. I did get that yednicka, although without understanding a word of what I answered. My Mom was happy. Getting a yednicka, my brother was to get it later when he topped in Charles University, was no mean feat.The whole school claps for the achievers as they bow to the audience of proud parents. You would have been proud too, if you were here, Mom. Your balodi has done it.
*yednicka = 1 - the highest rank in 5 point scale** balodi = a little girl
Potpourri II
In absence of any concrete topic to elaborate upon, I revert back to a potpourri of thoughts .
What makes life interesting is its unpredictability. Just when I lose hope, some rays of light come dancing in and when I am brimming with excitement and anticipation of something good to happen, pat comes a damper. I would rather not talk about the latter but concentrate on the former.
Shashi Tharoor keeps me enchanted (with due permission from my Aqua Genius). The more I read his interviews the more I appreciate his diplomacy, conviction and focused vision.
Much as I was getting wary of school, now I am enjoying it thoroughly. I try to employ new methods of teaching, though their efficacy can only be gauged in the longer run. I don’t expect any short-term gains from them. In this session I intend to experiment with group activities, Internet Activity and focus on weaker students. Last year a tearful mother of a weaker student stirred my conscience. I realized I was concentrating more on brighter students than on the weaker ones, so I promised myself to change my focus in the next session.
Talking of bright students takes me to the celebration of Foundation Day of our school. Many old students had come to be a part of the celebrations. One of them was a student of IIT Guwahati. Though I had never taught him, but knew him as one of our brightest ex students. We were talking about his future plans. I told him whatever his plans for future must be ; he should finally remain in India and pay something back to society. I was surprised when he replied as a well thought of answer that he could contribute by going abroad. Remittances from NRIs do contribute a major chunk of our foreign reserves. But would he like to absolve of his duties by just contributing a few dollars or would he rather put in his efforts in taking his country to higher level of social and economic state? He was speechless. Ordinary graduates can definitely contribute more by going abroad as by doing so they vacate a seat for another unemployed. But not the IITians and Medicos. This land needs them for their expertise and not for their income generating capabilities. When Nehru set up IITs, surely his vision must be to shape the likes of Narayan Murthis and not the likes of Desi Silicon Valley techies.
The week had lot more to offer then anticipated. When my Principal offered me to accompany her to HT Pace Principals meet on Saturday the 15th, I didn’t know what to expect. A satirical play from IPTA finally made the evening worth every moment. “Taj Mahal Ka Tender” a delightful satire on the working of our bureaucracy, was successful in painting a pathetical picture of Babu culture, though amidst all that laughter one couldn’t but realize that that was no satire. It was truth…bare and naked. A culture steeped in corruption, red tapism and a mammoth parasite feeding on the greed and self centredness of sarkari babus is a curse on our governing fabric.
I just pray that Dove doesn’t come across the new term “mouse potato”. She might use it as a tool of retaliatiation, as very often I have called her a couch potato.
Potpourri
Summer vacation, is silently tiptoeing away while I am still letting the feeling of vacation sink in. And suddenly now, I can feel the daily madness rushing towards me with an alarming speed. Just a few days more and there it will be - the yes madam and no madam, the checkings, the results, the successes and the failures. Amidst it all a continuous balancing effort between the bright and dull students and friendly and not too friendly colleagues. Am I rejuvenated? Can’t say. The emptiness brings its own heaviness. Am I looking forward to school? Maybe yes. Then I would not get much time to waste over matters inconsequential.
I caught up with reading and realized that India is the flavour of the day . Vir Sanghvi in the Counterpoint writes that it’s a good time to be an Indian and hope that we don’t screw it up again. It’s a pity that even a journalist of his stature judges his own self with the foreign glasses. For me it is always good to be an Indian. And I share my hopes and aspirations for this great land with the dreamy eyed Shashi Tharoor - India’s nominee for the post of UN Secretary General. I pray that he does get elected to the coveted post.
Vipin has tagged me. Thanks Vipin…my very existence seems weird but I will try to list the notable weird things. So here it goes…
Smile
Enjoying a literary piece while teaching I start smiling to myself oblivious to the existence of others. That smile attracts many a laughter in the class.
New Recipe
The first time I try a recipe it goes very well. But Alas! Never ever again. As happened with Rava Idlis - The White Dumplings (as one of my Czech friends married to a South Indian calls them).
Saree
When most of my colleagues and friends prefer to wear the easiest Indian attire the Salwar Kameez I prefer the whole six yards inviting some mixed remarks.
Beggars
Since I hate beggars I refuse to even look at them. So one day A beggar complained “ Yeh to dekhti bhi nahi hai…paise kya degi.”, which sent Dove and me into loads of laughter.
Hindi
Always in love with Hindi, sometimes I switch to such a chaste Hindi that my students get bewildered. So now they have to consult the Hindi to English dictionary.
Tears
There’s a flip side to smile weirdness. I leave this to the imagination of the readers because it’s too weird to describe.
I resolved to live by this great quote when I enter my classroom this session: "There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly"...Buckminister Fuller
The Expatriates
My Dad would often say that Indians and potatoes are found in every part of the world, right from Japan to distant Bermudas (read extreme east to extreme west). Inherent in the statement is the fact that we Indians are extremely adaptable and get easily amalgamated with the mainstream in any part of the world. At times we even outshine the mainstream in every sphere of life and grow strong roots to firmly entrench ourselves in the alien soil.
However the vice versa seems rather implausible. An article on expats in TOI Ascent caught my attention today. According to the article there are around fifty thousand expats working in India. Most of them are placed in higher end positions in multinationals. Very few of them are in middle or lower rung positions. What the expats have to say about their experience in India are the oft repeated and typical facts. Lack of infrastructure, red tapism, lack of straightforwardness and thus roundabout way of doing things etc.are the usual handicaps that perplex them. Here I would like to share the experience of a Russian tourist. The communist Russian became a staunch theist after his return from India. One of his friends enquired about the reason, which had brought such a dramatic change in him. The answer he had was everything to do with the way this subcontinent functioned. The way things moved in India, he said, was only possible with the help and existence of God. Nothing else can sustain the chaos that pervades the Indian life and yet make it move forward.
But it’s not all negative that these expats have to say about India. Nobody can remain untouched by Indian hospitality and generally good nature of people.
Times are changing fast. If the present trend of hike in salaries continues the brain drain might be arrested and there may be a reverse trend of world’s best brains being absorbed by India.
Notwithstanding the heat and dust India has some unique features, which might make it the most priced destination for the upwardly mobile globetrotters. The cost of living is far cheaper as compared to other countries and if coupled with salaries in dollars there cannot be a better proposal. Infrastructure facilities are improving by the day with improving means of transportation and communication. The hottest brands are entering Indian markets for its sheer size and thus everything is readily available in India.
With the burgeoning population and brilliant native brains, whether we need the extra expatriates is another question.
Old wisdom – volte-face?
Some truths remain eternal like love, sincerity and honesty as the sky above and the earth below. But some which seem like the mighty Himalayas at some point of time loose their height with the passage of time. Everyday I experience a new revelation and muse over the changing norms and their social acceptance.
In the kingdom of fools everyone slept during the day and went to plough their lands in the starlit nights. Thus started an ancient story named The Kingdom of Fools. No one was allowed to work during the day. The day was reserved for snoring and night for toiling. But what was so foolish about the whole set up? Scratch your head or rub your forehead. No, you won’t comprehend what the story is trying to tell. After all you see a whole generation of Indians getting up in the wee hours of night and sleeping in the wee hours of morning. It’s a matter of a few years for evolutionary process to take over and convert us - the outsourced humans, into nocturnal creatures.
If you fail to grasp this story then how will this poor joke fare? When all Toms and Dicks had stopped bragging and boasting about their adventures Harry says that he was a guest of honour at his parents’ wedding. How does one laugh at this joke when there doesn’t seem to be anything funny about attending your parents’ wedding anymore, when marriage happens after the birth of the child? It’s a matter of time before marriage becomes a redundant institution if not in India then at least in occidental cultures.
An illiterate person putting his thumb impression on papers was a common scene in banks or any other legal place (maybe it still is). And one could hurl a derogatory “angoothachaap” on someone, who couldn’t distinguish an “a” from a “b”. But think twice before you call someone an “angoothachaap” now. With biometrics ruling the roost in identity business an "angoothachaap" could be anyone from the Monicas of White House to a top brass in Pentagon.
So next time if you are trying to enlighten your kid or maybe your own self with the wisdom of a grandma's story, or a proverb do think it over. We are treading on slippery grounds.
Rang De Basanti
I am late, quite late to talk about a film called Rang De Basanti. The movie has been reviewed from almost all the angles and most of the reviews were exhaustive. I am not a movie buff neither have I written any review thus far. But somehow I felt I must write about this one.
There is this set of youth whom we all know. We have grown up listening to their stories, we have grown up reading about them in our history books and we have grown up taking them for granted. A set comprising Bhagat Singh, Bismil, Chandrashekhar Azad and Ashfaq. Their unfailing faith, sacrifices and boundless energies are well known. In fact so well known that they do not stir any chord in us. Juxtaposed to this is another set. A set comprising present-day youth. Carefree, practical and resigned. Resigned to chaos around them, resigned to everything that is wrong around them. The only faith they have is, that theirs is a useless land where nothing can ever change- not the corruption, not the injustice and not the power distribution. Their energies remain untapped and they drift with the wind. The film does an amazing job. It creates a consciousness and a conduit whereby the energies the faith and the spirit of the first set flows into the other and the fivesome are metamorphosed. The history gets repeated. If general Dyer could be killed so can a corrupt Defense Minister. If masses could show their solidarity against a cruel alien Raj by congregating in a historic park so can candles be lit in unison to show discomfort against corrupt ministers.
Therein lies the beauty of the movie. It reminds us that the shackles of British Raj were broken by the massive uproar of common man. We need to repeat that portion of our history. The characters morph back and forth from one set to another conveying the idea that we are the same people, that we can fight and that we are still alive. All is not dead within us.
The feel of the film is very fresh and all the actors do justice to their characters, especially when they have to play dual roles, which are diametrically opposite to each other.
However, at time the scenes get dragged too far .One does feel that the subject could be dealt with a little more subtlety and that the film is trying to please everyone. But then if you have to reach far and wide you cannot be otherwise. The message comes packaged in a drama but its not didactic. Just a little solution thrown your way. All said and done it’s a must see movie of the season.
PS: Two of my favourite stars Aamir Khan and Madhavan make the movie all the more interesting.