30-hour Project, The School KFI

Event News from Chennai: 

Last week I had been to The School, Krishnamurthy Foundation, for a presentation by the (now) XII^th Std. students. These students were involved in a project called the 30-hour project the previous year. The deal was that during that year, each student would spend a total of 30 hours doing / learning something new, besides his academics. The objective of this activity was that s(he) gets to do something that s(he) loves and wants to do, besides being a shift away away from their scholarly pursuits. Each of the 20-odd students made a presentation on their 30-hour project.

Just before the programme began: the Assembly Hall in their school made colourful with different displays around the hall, students from other classes gathered to watch their seniors, parents and others joining the crowd, and the persons to be on stage busily tinkering around the place in preparation.

The event started with music and jamming. Three guys with their guitars, and drums playing an orginal composition. They then got the corwd tapping their feet to a spontaneous rendition of Jamming. The result: raw energy, pulsating music and high talent. There were other music sessions – one girl playing the veena, and yet another singing. There was one who said she didn’t know her own mother-tongue, and so started learning it – malayalam. She recited nursery rhymes in malayalam, and then went on to sing a malayalam song too. The business magnate shared the business experience that he got by working in his mother’s two-wheeler Showroom. The historian shared his learning and titbits from a book on Indian History that he had read, became quite impassioned with his subject until he was told to stop by his co-presentors. The pioneer who learnt and practiced tentpegging and proudly announced that she is one of the first tentpeggers in the country. The sportsman showing off the smart and smooth moves that he practices now while playing basketball and confounds the opponent. Besides these, there was capentry, origami, tye-and-dye, mehendi, camera-making, sketching, design / art, model-making, cooking, embroidery, and welding.

On the surface it might have been just another cultural event. But the students themselves and what they shared with the audience made all the difference. All of them were candid, simple and unassuming about what they had to say. They all shared the difficulties they had faced during the course of their project, new learning that they acquired, ideas that struck them etc. The student who made the camera said that there is some problem because of which it does not take the photo now but he hasn’t yet solved it. Another who said he wanted to study literature in his mother-tongue (telugu) but gave up because it was too difficult, and instead made models of a bike and a monster both of which run on motor. The potential entrepreneur who displayed a lamp shade that he had made, and spoke about how he did not just learn carpentry from his teacher but also how this can be made in to a profitable business and developing his entrepreneurial skills and abilities. The novice chef admitted that she does not enjoy cooking much, and so decided that she had to learn it and get acquainted with it. She brought some dishes for sampling, which were pronounced delicious. There were others who not content with just learning the skill or art, did some background study about it and presented this information too. Like, who started the practice of wearing Mehendi, when and the evolution of the art. Each one of them had their unique style of presenting their stuff, and each had something new and different to offer.

Above all, the knowledge that this team had to share with us was of learning itself and work– that ways of learning and education is not simply within the textbooks or inside the classrooms. Education is for all times and spaces – one only has to look for it and be aware of it. And in this learning and awareness, there is only the healthy drive to excel in whatever one is doing and enhance each other’s development. This cooperation, harmonised effort and an aware learning is what is needed to transform education to success and achievement.

Bindaas!

A review of Taare Zameen Par

Movie, “bindaas!” as Ishaan Avasti (Darsheel Zafary), the character in the movie would say. Upfront, a simple film with a moving story about a child with a disorder – dyslexia. His disorder is not understood by anyone, and as a result he is labeled a lazy, rude and disinterested boy who remains behind in the race of everyday school competition. Enter, a different kind of a teacher, who has overcome the same condition in himself, to help the kid through it, gain acceptance in the eyes of his world by charting his own path to excellence.

But look again, the dyslexia is only the gateway; the movie does not attempt to get into the technicalities of the disorder, which may have interested only a part of the audience. Not using the term “education system” anywhere really, the movie shows glimpses of what is going wrong with our current schooling system and flashes of ideas for betterment here and there. But, neither has the movie started analysing deeply into schooling issues, nor tried to show The Way to correct the system. Yet, it has touched upon many problems with it, all connected, through a simple and inspiring story. Brilliant storytelling!

The three significant scenes which are heavy and dealing with overall questions of learning and schooling, flow in perfect timing and location in the movie. They come on suddenly without any building up to profound message-giving, forcing the audience to take the “bitter pill” so to say, and then swiftly we move on without wallowing.

One is the scene where the teacher, Nikumb (Aamir Khan), meets the child’s parents and pushes them to look at the purpose of educating their boy, the absurdity of their own expectations from him and the meaning of success, pointing to them as well as the audience the anomalies with the current societal approach to education and ideas of success and achievement.

The second is the powerful conversation between the father and the teacher which brings out the difference between true compassion and taking care of the (a) child, and the appearance of doing so. This scene very starkly places the child as the focal point in the entire gymnastics.

The third scene is the staff room, when the innovative teacher hits against a wall of lethargy, insensitivity and rigidity of the “system” in the other teachers.

Here the script stumbles, and this staff room scene is weaker than the other two in that, it only depicts the system’s arguments against a different learning-oriented values and schooling, but keeps the teacher who can see the problems, a passive listener.

Another problem in the film is that it does not stay true to its own punch line, “Every child is special”. In showing the one character and his trials in life, the other children are all clubbed into one uniformed mass laughing at him. The only exception is the one who becomes his friend.

A very good twist in the story is that the teacher himself is also dyslexic, because then there is empathy beyond anything else, and also an example of possibilities and opportunities for the child.

There are many little insights into children’s learning, human behaviour, and how relationships work, that are scattered in the movie and make it timeless – just a subtle awareness displayed without going too much into details and analysis – whether it is the suggestion of how to engage with the government, or it is the consciousness that there are other children without even the middle class comfort of our protagonist (without being didactic about it), or a simple understanding of how a child thinks, learns and responds.

One such subtle funniness in the movie is the play on the word, “drishtikon”, which means “perspective”. The boy is asked to explain a poem on Drishtikon, which he does so with a much deeper insight into the concept of perspective. To his utter chagrin, the Hindi teacher scolds him and appreciates another boy who re-quotes the poem in an explanatory way as he has been taught. One could almost miss the nuances of his fine explanation of perspective. Towards the end, the same teacher appreciates the boy to his parents, saying “What a different perspective your son has of things! Bravo!”

Technically, a sound production – music, visual and imagery brilliantly done (the title visual and music deserve special mention), and the performance of the actors is first-rate. The one aspect in which the editing gets unstable is when Aamir Khan is on screen. There are too many sudden cuts to close in on his face working up tears and getting highly emotional. It does not make sense that a person who is so passionately working with different kinds of children, and who has had a different childhood himself would burst into such emotion at the drop of a hat! And it is amateurish if the camera has to do a close-up every time he gets into emotion. I suppose this is to ward off the evil eye!

Conclusion however: this is a movie worth collecting for the library.

My Grandmother's Obituary

My great grand mother, Kamakshi Ammal, passed away on Feb 15th 2008. Fighting to retain her independence till the very last days. That was one of the foremost qualities about her - Her independence, of action and thought. She was traditional and yet modern at the same time. She was a stickler to her 'acharam' in practices like not touching anybody until she has finished her daily 'parayanam' in the morning, but at the same time would not blink an eyelid about a girl marrying out of her religion, and would say, "So what?" You have to remember the generation she comes from and all its orthodoxy. She was 88 when she passed away. Despite her orthodox times, she studied for nursing, which was stopped half way through when she went to live with her husband and in-laws at age 16 (she was married at 13), took up the management of a big household and made for herself a position of authority in a male-dominated house by assuming greater and greater responsibilities, and also picked up reading, which stuck to her until the end of her life. One has to understand what it meant to manage a household in those times - a joint family, moreover a family which was very illustrious in Madurai in those days, dozens of visitors every day to meet the advocates in-house, numerous do's and dont's for cooking, and feeding this large number of people, the numerous religious practices, poojas and daily routines... and so on. She would tell us of all this as many anecdotes and stories involving the house and the people... one of the favourites that I remember are the late evenings, early nights when the men would go off to a movie or hang out with friends, and the women would retire to the women's chambers upstairs and then "they (women) would have all their fun". This fun consisted of my grandmother reading from novels, magazines, news papers for her mother-in-law and other women, young and old in the family, from the light of the hurricane(?) lamp. Only she could read. I imagined how my grandmother would have opened a whole new world of happenings and things through her reading on many of these nights. 

A voracious reading practice and an openness to new ideas and experiences were things that were essential to her being. She was well-versed in many many scriptures, could chant as well as explain their meaning, could quote lines from any of Kalki or Sujatha's novels apt to the situation; she also had a huge repository of all these quaint folk songs which she let loose to hers and our absolute glee, very relevant to the situation. My greatest regret has been that I have not documented any of these. It is these songs or small poem-compositions of those times, which show a different life - of deep observation of people and the way things happen, even the time to observe, and then the time to compose a song on the observation, the inclination to sit around and sing these songs in the evenings.... I must mention here that all the Ramayana and Mahabharatha that I know, I know because of her. She used to tell us stories from the 2 epics and that is how I know any of it. My sister lying on one side of her and I on the other at bed time, we used to listen to these stories which she said with great detail, relish and abandon. This was yet another quality that she kept with her always - her story telling quality. I realise as I write, that she enjoyed telling people stories and anecdotes. She also enjoyed meeting people, and talking to them about various things, drawing them out to tell her things (little realising that she was collecting anecdotes), and of course having them listen to her. Later, she would talk about them and come out with some wise and funny insight about their behaviour. 

It took very little to tickle her funny bone, and she would see some humour in almost any situation, and have a private laugh to herself. It was this ability to see the funny side of things which probably kept her sane, strong and open, even living with generations of people 4 times removed from hers, having different lifestyles and values, and doing strange things which she cannot understand. But it must also be said that she strived to keep herself up-to-date with all the things happening around her. She read all the Tamil news papers, magazines and all trivia that she can come across and would be able to talk to us also about these things. I remember talking to her once about some political issue, and with great reluctance she stated some of her views and during the conversation also told us how they had stopped wearing new clothes after the partiton of India happened! The entire family went into a life long mourning on this and vowed not to wear new clothes for any occasion. It was an eye-opener for me! I suddenly realised from what a political background she comes, and how her contemporaries in the family took part in the freedom struggle. And then came the realisation that she had no trouble keeping up with the political and social developments in the country or even in the world; it was technology and its application in every day life, life style and occupation, which she found strange. 

The core of my great grandmother was strength. Strength all the way - imagine a woman who had seen everybody in her family, from her own parents, children, children's spouses, siblings, grand-child's spouse, her husband whom she tended in the last days of his life when she was 80! (his bed sores and all), die before her ... and after all that could retain her sense of humour, love for new things, reading, propensity to pull everyone's legs, her love for knowledge... 88 years of life, well-lived, seasoned by so much of life's struggles and still the twinkle in the eye through it all.

Waiting for the Mahatma

Beautiful in its simplicity and gentle narration, a slow meandering of events, true to form, this is a novel by R.K.Narayan. He writes in his usual rambling style, but very contrarily sets his novel in the political background of the Indian Freedom struggle. Many might say that this is the personal story of a lazy and complacent young man, who meets and falls in love with a young woman, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and involved in the freedom struggle - his travails, reluctant transformation and ultimate union with the girl, where the political events unfold in the peripheral vision.

Yes, it is Sriram, the young man's personal story. But there is also another story woven along with this. The title is completely revealing of the essence of this latter story. The unusual component is the fictional appearance of Mahatma Gandhi, which the author has handled brilliantly. The conversations and episodes with Gandhiji reflect a keen and minute understanding of not only the man and his actions, but also his impact on the thousands of people that he met and how the freedom struggles were conducted at individual levels. There is a deeper understanding of the principles and foundation of the Mahatma which alone would enable one to extrapolate his words and actions to hypothetical / fictional situations in such a manner that a reader, be her casually acquainted with Gandhiji's messages or one who has studied him intensely, cannot quarrel with the author's portrayal of the Mahatma.


This same quality I found in the movie Lage Raho Munna Bhai, the instinctive recognition of the truth and rightness of the answers of the on-screen Gandhi - that "this is what Mahatma Gandhi would have said or done, given this situation" feeling.

Whether he wanted to or not, the author also draws for his readers a clear picture of how the freedom struggle reached so many villages, how millions joined the congress after Gandhiji entered the scene. R.K. Narayan does this by writing instances and episodes of Gandhi's visits to the villages, how people wait for a glimpse of the Mahatma everywhere that he goes, the moral charisma and authority that he exudes, how people are won over by his compassion and charm and how youth across the country join the national movement by doing something in their own neighbourhood. He also writes of episodes where many such youth follow Gandhiji's squad from one village to another and are chided by others for not being responsible to their own role of spreading the freedom struggle in their own place.

We know all this to be true from writings of other people of that time. The difference for me has been that, while earlier I knew these as events that happened at a particular time period, "Waiting for the Mahatma" brought to me in a personal and individual sense the inspiration and motivation that the man gave to each of his countrymen who encountered him in any way.