Cure in Home where you are at Home… Cure in Home where you are at Home… Once I asked the adolescent academicians in the PG class: “what kind of teacher in me is the one of your expectation?” As if in the pigeon holes, they safely had hidden their expectations in quiet complacent smiling (un)decidability. “Good or bad”, the rhetorical query yielded the routine answer-“good”. “Whose good, yours or mine?” again, I inquired, of course, a zero hour quick fill. They were too benevolent to take home choice until I revealed my good teacher/ bad teacher dichotomy and hence their vacillation on this disclosure. In due course most of them individually casted their votes to the so called bad teacher in my conscience as their “GOOD” and “good” in my conscience as their “BAD”. Some of them, honoured me with consolation prizes conceding with me partially, saying 40 percent “good” (their BAD), and 60”precent “bad” (their GOOD) will be alright for them. This proposal was particularly attractive to me, since I wanted to be at least 30 percent “BAD” and 70 percent “GOOD”. In my circle I rate a good person with this scale: a person who lets me free, rather than suffocating me with advice. A good teacher to me is the one who though sups with me, allows me to fix my menu. A good teacher to me is a good person who without interfering in my development let me develop on my own. A good teacher to me has a big role in setting my goal, but not a direct one. But they wanted me to be the director, to fix their roles. So we once again hark back to the theory of relativity, and I to sponsor them. On my promotional smile, the offer document was signed under 60/40 ratio. So I will be 60 percent GOOD as per their specifications: I will summarize plays and novels, will give line by line explanation to poems. I will put literature in plain words and nullify the slot of assigned duties in favour of protecting nature, following the principle reduce the use of paper, save nature. When I proposed the deal of compromise, they recognized it and raised the bar to fifty-fifty. In order to grab their fifty, that I offered, they offered the rest. In all my companionship at first, I would shy away thinking of lapses and failures. But once I confirm the “good” intention/ attitude, I would compromise, even if I had to fix bigger compromises for this miniature compromise. So we planned to dramatize the walking-talking literature with walk, talk and mask in brisk from the desk. This plan was made in several classes, as early as four years, but could not be worked out. I critically accepted the wisdom about my failure to make them walk on the stage through my talk. Consequently giving all the allowance to student(ly) concerns, I invited one from them to share my shoulder as director and emphasized the music and spectacle part. I did not insist on by hearting the dialogue, but implicitly stated that the hazy-lazy style may be an eyesore to the third spectacle, the camera. Not only these penetrable factors, but also the open attitude realized our goal and we performed a few plays in the class room. This time Aksheya from PG and Twinkle Raju from UG wore the director’s hat. They incorporated a number of strategies to make their acting a performance: Snake of School for Scandal with Chinese moustache, a lady Teazle in Purdah, lady Sneer well, beautiful as a Christian bride all conflated in the structure like gems chocolate. The little lollipops of first UG discern special mention for their music loops for background emotions, and Kathakali fusion technique of using a cloth for stage transition. I saw on the screen of the recoding device that a camera can make these amateur Wasserkopfs of Refund more professional. After the screen scenes in both, I planned but not pronounced an on record interview with the characters. When I announced this reality show episode, both UG and PG reluctantly agreed and to my surprise within seconds the first UG gals started playing the interviewer director and interviewed characters. They amazed me when the audience, without my prompting joined the discussion. The PG troupe, self-conscious, sought ten minutes break before the show. The panoptic device, the camera lens made the individuals rise to the situation without making them timid. My joy was not alone due to their performance, but for their self reliance and learning by acting. At last by making me their once BAD teacher, who assigned the task of dramatize the “text”, they cured the summary syndrome innocently. The new generation is ready for cure in home. But can we reduce our presence to a listener, or silent audience at least for an hour, I thought. Since they tolerated and compromised for the 50 percent BAD in me, the worry haunting me is whether I can rise myself to their 50 percent GOOD. The cure for anxiety begins at home, when you are in home. It is true in the other way too: the cure is in home where you are at home. Aswathi.M.P.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 16:38:55 +0000
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