Kashmir in a classroom!!

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.