A colleague of mine saw me reading the book and commented on how it looked like a children's book. Many people don't know yet that I spend more time reading children's books than anything else - and am not ashamed of it. This one was delightful, as Alexander McCall Smith usually is. It's the kind of book you can read slowly, knowing that it will not run away. You know that you won't forget crucial details that contribute to the plot. You know that the focus of the story is not the plot, but life itself. You know that ideas and thoughts will un-self-consciously find their way into description and dialogue. The name itself brings that sweet smile and says, "Hey, that's a book I want to read!" I took my own time to read it, chuckling at traditionally-built women, women who dream about shoes and men who dream about cars and garages. I remembered, once again, the fact that cliches are … [Read more...]
Travel Records
My sister and I looked around.Things seemed perfect. It was a beautiful morning. It was not raining. Shops were just opening; restaurant-workers were setting their chairs and umbrellas. In the middle of a square, we looked around for the perfect spot.We sat on our haunches and put our arms around each other. People on their way to work threw puzzled looks at us. We giggled. We weren't looking at our backpacks, so we threw an arm around them, just in case. Passers-by frowned. Some even stopped to look. We laughed out loud. We were in a public place, sitting awkwardly and uncomfortably in the middle of nowhere, hugging our bags and laughing delightedly. We were foreigners - very obviously so. I think some people were even getting bold enough to come and talk to us. We continued to laugh, holding each other tighter. The self-timed camera carefully positioned on a chair in front of us … [Read more...]
A Doll’s House
I cannot believe that Ibsen changed the end of the end of A Doll's House for its production in Germany! What happened to [t]hat slammed door [that] reverberated across the roof of the world? Ibsen agreed to make Nora go back to her children? Shocking! Almost as bad as Shaw making Eliza go to Mr. Higgins at the end of My Fair Lady, thereby changing the end of Pygmalion. But then, Shaw did not believe that he was giving the movie-watching public a happy ending. What kind of happy conclusion had a young girl going back to a cynical, selfish, middle-aged man? I remember how much of an impact A Doll's House made on me the first time I read it. For me, it was far more potent than An Enemy of the People, the text we had to study. It made me think about women, family, mother, role-playing.... I later read a beautiful tongue-in-cheek piece about how linking the woman … [Read more...]
Unit Plans
There's nothing, absolutely nothing, like teaching. You can be so joyously idealistic in everything you choose to teach! Planning my units on narrative and imaginative writing, and descriptive writing was almost as inspiring as writing itself. Well, not really, but you know... I made a whole plan on how to introduce the idea of story-writing. The effective opening. The appropriate ending. Dialogue, atmosphere, character, setting. For each, I mentioned resource material that I will use in class - pieces of music, video clips, extracts from stories and plays... Even pieces of cloth and chocolate. Because inspiration truly comes from anywhere. (And I'm not just being mean to students who have no desire to write - it's part of their course to explore abstract inspiration!) I planned classroom activities - group activities where the students begin with the same sentences and seek to explore … [Read more...]
Picnic!
I insist that the way I left school in the morning set my mood. People (read 'teachers and students') hate duty that takes them out of school into the hot sunshine. I exclaimed, "Picnic!" Other teachers laughed at me. I replied, "In the afternoon, I can complain; now at least, I'll go happy!" But even now, I'm not complaining. I went with a group of girls that was reasonably cheerful, willing to work and complained just a little. We were at a sericulture unit, learning about mulberry, lac and azolla. I found a mulberry leaf far bigger than my whole hand! I learned that azolla (which existed only in geography text books for me) can cause a cow to produce 1.5 times the regular amount of milk! We cut, pruned and planted. We dug, sieved the mud and laid the azolla beds. And I ate a one-rupee pepsicola. We played dumb charades and antakshari. What a lovely picnic it was! … [Read more...]
Board Exam
Ought I to be nervous? Concerned? Stressed? My students are writing their board exams. I wished them luck, gave them a pep talk and some last minute 'tips'. One student asked me for a vocabulary list he can use. I wanted to tell him 'a', 'an', 'the'. Instead, I told him not to use 'hi-fi' language. They laughed because I once ranted about how inappropriate the term 'hi-fi' is. Another student wanted to write the words 'discursive' and 'argumentative' on a piece of paper and take it into the exam hall. Another student succinctly said, "Arre! That will be on your question paper only! What you're writing?" Essentially, his point, as I understood it was that if he wanted to cheat, he should do something useful. The point was taken and understood. A student wrote an essay for me yesterday and left it on my desk with a note. The essay was Tron Legacy rewritten. Students don't seem to … [Read more...]
Miss Julie
Outstanding. To create passion like this and alternate between expressed passion and subdued passion is incredible. Miss Julie - headstrong and confused - wavering between strength and weakness - is a work of art. You hate her and admire her. Above all, you pity her. Or maybe not above all. There's no 'above all'. It's impossible to have a single emotion after a play as powerful as this one. A range of emotions rises and falls, leaving you almost breathless. Then, there's Jean - another work of art. Power-hungry, ambitious, practical. When I think about it, a character like that ought to be unbelievable. Yet, he's not. He's wholly believable, wholly despicable - and wholly worthy of hateful admiration. Christine - I wish I knew her. I wish she could just look at me with her grey eyes and hold my hand. Because then, the world could, perhaps, be good. … [Read more...]
Trams in Kolkata
The first time I went to Kolkata, I also went to Darjeeling. I was much younger then, and I was really just visiting my father's city, the place he grew up. We went in a tram, of course, and in Darjeeling, we took a ride in a toy train. Everyone talks about how picturesque that is, something tourists must do in Darjeeling. Returning to Kolkata, I confessed that the tram ride was much more thrilling than the toy train. My father joyfully took us on another tram ride. And so, when friends visited me in Kolkata, I insisted that they take a tram. Not to reach a destination (a certain detachment from the world is essential if you are taking a tram to get somewhere), but for the experience of it. A very dear friend of mine was, as always, the most expressive about the experience. "It's not possible," she said. "What?" "How can a tram go in one direction and all the traffic in the … [Read more...]
Vegetarian and Unadventurous
I've always tried to be adventurous with food, but to be honest, I am completely unadventurous. I try, I swallow, I sometimes even appreciate. But I also suffer from an overactive imagination. I remember the time a teacher of my sister's took us for a French meal. She took us to a beautiful, typical, arty place - with strict instructions not to look at the prices while ordering. That was difficult. But anyway, I cheerfully chose what I wanted - the one vegetarian dish that was typical of the region. I was happy; everyone was happy. And then, I was told, quite firmly, that a tarte tatin à la tomate was too small to be sufficient. Yes, it would be ordered, but I must have something else. Finally, I chose a souris d'agneau. My reasoning was this: it's lamb cooked slowly over the course of six or seven hours; surely it would be less meat-textured and my imagination less active. I … [Read more...]
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
Why does 'easy to read' somehow strike me as a slightly negative comment in the context of this book? Yet, I would not say I disliked the book. The gentle humour made me chuckle time and time again. The paradox of unbelievable believable characters was wonderful. Each character was more than just a character. The characters came alive despite being so exaggerated and unreal. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard did not end one page too early or one page too late. I think what made the book seem deserving of moderate praise rather than great praise was simply the fact that I find it forgettable. The fact that even though I just finished the book, I choose to write 'Each character was more than just a character' not 'Each character is more than just a character'. It's not one of those haunting stories that stays with you and makes you feel as if the character is a dear friend you want to … [Read more...]
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