Nothing is more gratifying than growing thoughts and flowing
words aiding compound actions. An issue with a beginning founded in chaos and
an end seemingly inconceivable as the clock runs, approaching it within a
classroom was more from a point of discernment and comprehension, not one aimed
at a miraculous solution. Well outside my comfort zone, it was never going to
be easy in a classroom of 30/30 Muslim students, most of whom still hate other
religions.
And with fear in my heart, I
decided to split the class apart into 2 mutually conflicting teams A and B, and
with another set of students who belonged to neither teams but scattered and
sharing classroom space with teams A and B. Team A and Team B elected leaders
of their own and so did the orphan set. Team A and Team B enjoyed total
independence while it was necessary for those who belonged to neither A nor B to
take permission from the leaders of both A and B to perform any minor ask, owing
to the fact that they share space with both teams. Leaders of A and B were both
well advised to not co-operate and remain obstinate. This went on for a good 2
hours, where the sense of frustration and helplessness had crept in and radical
thoughts were already being formed. I then proposed an alternative as planned,
suggesting them to join either A or B which, as expected, produced divided
opinion. I then held a secret council with Team A Leader asking him to convince
his friends in the orphan set to join his team. In another secret council I
leaked this information to the leader of the orphan set offering a solution at
the same time, asking her to join Team B so Team A is thwarted. Pandemonium!! I
had achieved my purpose for the day. I was not meticulous in designing this
activity but it had achieved its intent. Urging the class to revert to the
state of inertia the day before, I did a quick pulse check of the orphan set.
Radical thoughts had not entirely settled but they had now understood what Freedom really
meant. I then changed the name of Team A to Pakistan, Team B to India and the
orphan set to Kashmir. There was a quick recall of the bloody episode of partition
and why a forbidden fruit has been the cause of warmongering between 2 nations
of brothers and sisters. After lots of arguments , some awe-inspiring, some disturbing
the classroom on a whole was settled on the fact that co-operation of all
people, religious and otherwise is the only way to even approach at the doorstep
of a plausible solution to any problem. Older by their thoughts but younger by
their actions, the classroom has never seized to amaze me every single day!!
P.S: High on values and mind sets,
I got some good writing samples to keep TFI happy from an academic standpoint.
). He answered, rather proudly, that his was a love marriage when I
inquired about the reasons for getting married so early. He was born and
brought up in bangalore and he drifted on to the topic of the increased
cost of living in the city. “shanthi sagar alli naaku vare rupai ondu
masala dose thindre hotte thumbogthithu, eega adhe dose 24 rupai.. aadru
10 thindru hotte thumballa” which translates to “few years ago, a
single masala dosa in shanti sagar was sufficient to fill ur stomach and
costed only 4 and half rupees, but now the same dosa costs 24 rupees
and yet you cannot be sure if it can fill ur tummy!!” he complains about
the exponential increase in the prices and the degraded quality of
products. And he launched a war against the increasing fuel prices and
how it affected his life to a larger extent as his daily bread depended
on it!! He took a dig at the politicians as well and the current state
of karnataka politics which is in shambles saying .. “ee baddi makkalu
avr mane katkoLakke nam kaasu odithare sir, naave namge dhudko beku,
naanu ivrge vote hakodu niLsbittidini eega eradu varshadinda!!” “these
Idiots(or something more abusive) use our money to build their homes,
there is no use trusting them, we should only earn money by working
hard, I have even stopped voting for these guys from the past 2 years!!”
to which I responded with a lengthy speech on the importance of a
single vote and how he is not utilizing the power he has to choose the
right leader. I had very less time in which to convince him to vote
again as we were nearing my home. He then confessed with me that he had
wasted most of that day in searchof his friend(who owed him money) which
ended unsuccessfully and he had not earned enough for that day. He was
feeling a little guilty but it was clear to me that he was scared of his
wife(who isn’t??) and her reaction. I reached home, paid him and bid
him good night!! I started a little research on few facts that he
mentioned and most of them turned out to be true… there indeed has been a
steep rise in the fuel prices in the past few years among other things
making it even harder for many people like Nagaraju to survive!!