English Education

I very often make a derogatory remark, on a few I don’t agree with, for them being non-Indian thinkers despite being Indians, as "English-Educated". I do not intend to talk on English being the medium of instruction in our educational system. This piece is rather about the "English-Education" and what it is doing to the society, through the pair of goggles - my personal experience.

I attended Shrine Vailankanni for elementary and primary schooling. The school buildings' planning was in a way that Kinder-Garden was housed in a building in Ramaswamy Street, Primary classes in Hensman Road and High School in Dhandapani Street.

I assumed that the whole school was just that building in Ramaswamy Street, which made it obvious to me that LKG and UKG were all about schooling, and I would go to office after that. I was so young that I didn't even realise I had many elder cousins who were attending higher classes in school. All I knew then, was Divya, my neighbour, who was a year elder to me. When I passed on to UKG, I realised that she was still attending school! I was struck with "What was she doing beyond UKG?". Later I realised that my cousins, infact one of them in my own school is attending 9th std. Stunned, again I was, that there is a whole set of a dozen more years in this school, and later we have college, and on and on. I, for a moment thought, "This educational system (read Shrine Vailankanni building system) has cheated Me!". Well, these counldn’t have exactly been my feelings at the tender age of 5, but I always felt something was going against me.

From then on, whatever my school or teachers tried to teach me, I always looked at them with some suspicion. I was a rebel in thought, but not necessarily in action, in the learning process. By the time in 6th, I was unhappy with SVS (Shrine Vailankanni) for the 'business' they were running in the name of school. I realised that what history books spoke about was not history, rather was what NCERT and Frank Bros., the publisher, wanted us all to read and accept. This realisation was because of my ever-suspicious mind and my teacher's inability to answer "Why did Alexander leave India without proceeding further towards Magadha, even after having planned an attack?”

Then happened the most beautiful turn in my life till date, I moved to JGHV, a school run by VHP. It could be that I was growing older and more mature to realise what education really is, or that SVS has till then held me against the wall, or neither, but HV had the best platform for me to realise Me. Sriram, who was not known beyond my classroom earlier in SVS, was now known all over the school. The school did not preach anything into me, but I realised, education was not writing exams and scoring high; It was more than that, but never was able to realise what it really was. History, as ever, was the subject which kindled the most interest in me. Honestly, I did not learn much in it either, but ended up having many more unanswered questions, the list of which was ever-growing throughout my school days.

The school arranges for many speeches by leaders from RSS and VHP, which almost all the students deride saying: this school is making sanyasis' out of us; but always, there was some element of stove-lighter type of effect in them, on me at-least. I must remember Mr. Manian, who according to me is well read, knowledgeable man but lacking some element of common-sense in talking to students of the age 10-13. He once made a speech on English Education, and what has it done to us all. He made one interesting point on Ashoka. Not just in English language, but even in Tamil and Hindi, we were so fed-up writing answers "Asokar Saalai oram Marangalai Nattaar, kinaru vettinaar....." (for those who cannot understand tamil, you should have guessed what's inside the quotes from the word fed-up preceding it ;-) ). He said, “Ashoka the great”, is perhaps the biggest hoax inflicted by this Education. It was planted, so that the students will completely ignore the essense of Magadha Empire, the 'real' reason why the Macedonians fled back, its real Hero - Chandragupta, the governence in the Mauryan dynasty, the concept of dynasties and the family ethics which was driving India till then, and above all the Pride we need to have, hailing the first Maurya as our National Hero!. Instead, we hail the "First-ever" non-secular king in the Indian history, whose symbol we still carry as the national emblem today, from nowhere till then, and his act of infrastructure building was all the governing practises we had in our country. Maurya and Raja Raja Chola, who independantly popularised local governance were totally forgotten. We now attribute our Panchayat Raj system to Lord Rippon ("Rippon, engaL appan" BS! ), and Balwanti Rai Metha Committee, post independance.

I did not learn anything new by asking many questions. But always, I have let myself open to reality by asking further questions without really bothering to find answers. I knew, answers would come at their will, and no question is stupid, if it is not so thought. In this process, I was able to shed some Englishness which was already planted in me.

I am running into something more involved than what I intended to write about, now. But the point here is the kid, who felt cheated when he felt UKG was not the end of school, has come a long way. The one who was looking even at the dozen years to spend in school with awe, 18 years later, is continuing, and still going, with almost all my friends, even those who were mine since my UKG days, think " Will this one ever stop going to school ? "; I attribute it all to all the non-Englishness I had or rather chose to have in my english-education.

WOW Michigan!

After ages, I went to school without an outer fleece. Ides of March; and 21 degree C; that too positive!, quite surprising to see in Michigan. As I do many a times, got down from the bus half the way to school and walked the rest. It seemed that the bright sunshine was more than inviting for all students, as lawn outside the dorms were full of activity, with guys playing frisbee and throw ball. Basketball and tennis courts opposite to Wilson Hall were packed. It was quite pleasing to see some human activity outside, for the place having been perennially covered with a white blanket for months now, and no one did really want to show-up outdoor.

With a happy face carrying some sweat on the forehead for a change(well... I sweated even when I cleared up snow outside my apartment when it was -22C, so dont judge the severity of weather with my sweat index ;-) ), I went to my office and checked for the weather forcast for the week: Tonight 18 degree C, gradually going down tilll 10 degree C thursday night, and Snow showers predicted on Friday afternoon!!!! :O

Well .........Michigan for you! :-|......... no more words... sigh!

Feb 28, 2002 Part II

contd...................
Totally drained.... even before my program was to begin....finished the lunch quickly and rushed to the same place; quiz was about to begin in another 20 mins.

The computer was on the floor level, and the screen was clearly visible till the third row of the audience. We had to move it to the stage control area, which would be a level lower than the floor. I did not want to unplug the system and reboot it.. as we would never know with Windows, when we are going to see the bluescreen, just to play it very safe. Vedik called for me from the stage and asked me to make a table in ppt to show the score board. Before I came back, Samrith* had shut down the PC, and unplugged even the projector, and had moved it to the control area. It was all set up in a jiffy, and he was proud that he did a good job. System turned on, and Aaaaaaah! the mouse didnt work! :-(... he was cool saying, the plugging probably went wrong; he then quickly swapped the keyboard and mouse plugs. Now what???? even the keyboard didnt work!!!. Hmm... PS2 ports, both broken! and time closing in.

We didn't have any support staff with us to take care of the situation. We had to rush to the Comp-sci dept from where we borrowed the machines. Braught a staff to the stage to see if we could salvage with whatever we had left, but of no use. There was no other option but to get another mouse and Keyboard. We didn't want anyone in the stage to know about this and nor the Faculty. I called up the Student Sec. to delay the show as much as he can, as "the off stage crew wasn't ready" (:P). He started off with a brief interview of the participants about the Presentation contest (yes! the same Plastics Boon or Bane stuff!! ). Three of us (including Samrith) went up to the Comp-sci dept again to see if we can manage to get the devices we need. I didn't have much of a say there. This Samrith guy was smart enough to persuade with a top faculty in the dept. and get the stuff in no time (I would spare him for his blunders just for this O:-)).

So we came running to the audi again, and we had a laughter therapy waiting for us :D. Abhiram was on stage going on with the "Rapid-fire" round with a dead expression and the best of all, he had the mic-cable running through between his legs! LOL! I wasn't able to control laughter seeing him struggling to move around and not realising that he need to just walk over the cable and set himself free. He finished the round in the same pose! :)).

And this time, we, chose not to take any risk, asked those staff to set things up. Booted at last! (sigh) Other rounds were on as planned, and also to remember was Samrith and Prashanth playing around with a "MI:2" ring tone played in the speaker when the later made appearance on stage, originally meant to be a glamourous entry, ended up being a comedy!

Other things to remember from the programme were: almost all of the candys thrown off to the audience who answered the left over questions, went to the couple of girls who wrote down the question cards for the quizmasters ;-); In the jumbled city round, the Chief guest claiming that we missed a 'c' in the word Sheffield (now where does a 'c' come into?), and I made a harsh reply to the Chem Chair :O, "I bet, I am right!" B-); and we opening the round with "XEBA ODUR" and following it with "DIL HI AAP HELP"

Still none of the faculty incharge of the programme, and the students on stage knew about the problem we had. The quiz was over. Despite me and Prashanth having worked so hard to prepare the questions, Velammal swept the contest with ease. That was rather disappointing :(.

When we were about to clear the stage, Vedik came to me and asked " Why didn't you make the scoreboard?". I didn't want to answer, just turned to Rakesh and smiled, and he in turn looked at Vedik and laughed! :D. Then I sat down with the Sec. and all others in the backstage about what all had happened. I admit that this narration didn't do any justice to the drama that happened then, there, and I did narrate better in the backstage that day, and all of them went crazy. We had the water bottles to be kept for the Dignitaries of the Valedictory function. Aamir and I finished off couple of bottles, as I sweated out non stop for the past hour or so. With the program about to begin, we were running short of bottles!.. Aamir quickly ran to a garden tap nearby, filled a couple of them up and kept them on stage! ;-). (If I remember right, they returned the bottles, including those two and got the money re-embursed :P ).

We had to clear the stage and return al l the gadgets. Doing so, I had to miss the bus back home :((

That sums it up! One of the most unforgettable days in life!

*Samrith doesn't deserve the anonymity, that I gave for some of them in the earlier post :|

Feb 28, 2002 - Part I

That was one of the days I must remember for my life time.

My first year in college, 'A' section, comprising only of Mechanical Enggs, often maligned by other class 'studs' as a set of rough guys (well we mechies are dumped with such a name everywhere ), less funda (who said??? whoever it may be, let him come and face me now!!), and set of rather unfortunate guys (ofcourse... there were only 62 boys in the class ;-)). There was a Tech-Symposium, CRESCIENCE 2002, organised by the Chemistry Dept; After much of interclass politics, our class managed to get all the respectable-(??) stage duties :D

I was having lunch in my classroom. It was an eventful day already. Amit was eager to know the story till then. So I started --

A few hours earlier it was a late winter (in madras???) morning, surprisingly misty, with rather poor visibility. I walked down the platform in Mambalam station, and the mist was so heavy that I wasnt able to see anything beyond 20 metres. My best friend** and one of her friends came and joined me. The other guy** looked at me strangely, as I was in formals. After hesitating twice, he asked, " Dont you think your dress will get dirty as the day goes by, and at the time of your program, it woundn't be so formal??". I prefered not to answer, but to be politically correct, I replied back saying there was no plan to put me on stage, so anything was fine with me. With no clues how to react, he just turned aside. The train horned...., I wasnt able to see the train untill it went past me. Three of us boarded the general compartment. It was a part of their plan that her class mates, one was the student sec.**, incharge of the whole program, was to join them at Mount. As they didnt turn up, we got down to wait. The next train has come, and I was running out of time. As my presence was verymuch needed there, for the start, I decided to leave along with her. My class mate Vedik was in the same compartment, we boarded.

Event # 1:
The train left Sanatorium station, and she 'made' a wierd look at me. I guessed wat she was about to say, and started praying that my guess better goes wrong.... "Sriram, I dont have the ticket with me".... OMG! For a sec, I sweared at that guy, but within myself, bcos she was equally irresponsible. I just cheered her up at the sametime praying not to have the tc on the platform, that day. It was Tambaram, most crowded as ever, we got down the train, and were carried by the crowd along the platform. TC was there; "Ticket please!". We both went and confessed, and promised them that, in the next train her friend would surely come with the ticket. The TC, was being a nice guy in agreeing with us. The next train came, and no one turned up. We thought we would wait for one more. But it was getting too late for me. In the worst case to pay the fine, she made sure there was enough in hand and ordered that I shall leave to college immediately as it was important. I was reluctant to leave her alone. One friend of mine was walking in the platform. I thought of asking him to stay for her company, but she refused. I half heartedly left the station; Took a useless M18, and reached Zoo. When I started walking towards the college, a car stopped infront of me. Milleth was driving, and 'he' and the student sec., both were inside, asking for what happened to her. Vedik had reached college earlier and had told the story. They rushed to Tambaram, and picked her up from there. Pooh, the day started bad.......

Moral: If you are buying tickets in bulk for travel or cinema or theatre, plz distribute the tickets to all.
Later I came to know that she never had a ticket from Mount till Tambaram :P

I went into the audi, and it was already half full, and many eager faces near the stage waiting for me. A couple of faculty, Mrs. Rani and Dr. Easwaramoorthi, knowing what had happened, tried their best to make me feel comfortable. I was permitted to skip the opening function, and take rest in the Chemistry lab. I had left my bag, in the audience gallery. After sometime, the chairs were moved and my bag went missing in the crowd. I pleaded to almost all the students standing as volunteers in the audi to find my bag, but in vain. No one seemed to care a damn about it. But after all it was my bag. I had no other option.... I made most of them panic spinning a story that all the CDs are inside the bag and if they dont find it, the program wont go through...... oooooohhhh! Politics is great.. it works wonders.. I got my bag in just a couple of mins.


Twist (should say Pain :-( ) #2
After relaxing in the Chem lab for abt half an hour, I was called for, to the audi. Now the worst things were about to come (courtesy Vedik). I was asked to monitor the presentation contest, both the sessions... ALONE! (well Aamir was there compering)....I wouldnt have minded, had the topic been good and interesting.... but it was "Plastics are Boon or Bean for mankind" :P... dumb!!!..... I took care of arranging Hand Mic, Collar Mic, the student's hopeless floppy disks, even powerpoint, slide management for a couple of Presenters, and the worst of all was LISTEN TO ALL THE CRAP and also the stupid questions from the Jury......Profs Prince, EC, and Majeed, were shooting really dumb questions like, when a students' talk is about Plastics being a boon, "why not bean?" and otherwise if the talk was on bean. Later I was told that Vijay was furious with the Jury's attitude, and went on to spit fire at Dr. Bilal. :D

Moral: In any presentation, I should never bore my audience like they did to me :P

So, I finished the story, and it was a mixed reaction from Amit, with a special laughter at the train ticket mess up. I laughed back, without knowing about the time to come ;-).

to be contd with more 'interesting' things ;-)..........

** I havent used the names of my fellow collegemates, who are less likely to read this post.

Bulb!

Most of the time, I would be too concious of what I am doing, and what is happening around me. So only rarely I do flick a bulb. But I should say, the year 2006 was way too smart for me.

Most appropriately, the year ended on a crazy note. Having been alone at home, all through the winter break, I thought of going out to the mall to kill time differently. It was already 5pm(sunset time here). I had a glance at the bus schedule, and decided to go ahead as the timings were quite managable. It was raining quite heavily, but I so wanted a change in life, I went on; Reached the mall at 5:45 only to know that it closes at 6 for the day being a Sunday. Flashed once already!

I walked across to Meijer Supermarket, atleast to make the 6 mile trip worth by shopping for some groceries; Had a stroll around clothes section to check if there was any New year deal, and finished the shopping by 7. It was an unusually long wait in the bus stop. Alarm(sangu) rang for me!. I recollected that I realised it was Sunday only at the Mall, and on sundays no bus service after 6:30 !! House is more than 6 miles away, it was pouring heavily, and I have goods in hand (worst was a milk gallon, so uncomfortable to carry). Not even a single soul, I knew, was in town to request for a pick up and drop back home. So adventerous I was, to start walking back, only to realise after about 100 metres that there are no pathways in Okemos and Mt. Hope roads for a stretch of 4 miles; Walked back to the store, called for a taxi, and came back home. Worst thing was I paid $12 for the taxi and my shopping bill was only $16.

Had I dozed at home as always I do, and walked to the nearby Goodrich's store, it would have been a lot better. But it was 2006 and it was meant to be my bad day. I dont remember an instance in whole life when I didnt have in mind what day it was. I dont blame on time for it, it was my fault, and yes! fate had to be answered.

That one day sums my entire year up. I made some mistakes, which I would have never done before and would never do here after. Lots of big decisions going disastrous(not just mine :| ). Not to deny that I did have a decent academic success, cleared the PhD qualifying exams way ahead of time, earned a Masters degree, got a couple of fellowship awards and a lot of positive changes in me; but the year would be long remembered only for all the wrong reasons.