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.
