Yesterday I saw a blog in Tamil, and I immediately wondered why there is no native references in my posts here. There are only sparse references to our home culture, right? One reason is that at present I am not able to type in Tamil. The more pertinent one would be that the western civilization has very much become a part of our consciousness.
Here is an excerpt from a novel by Pazhaman, "Kallum Mullum" (Stones and Thorns). This part is a recollection of the narrator's college days in the 1950s.
"How sublime were those days! Is it possible to forget the classes of M.R.P., the Tamil Professor? He would teach heart-grabbing Silapathikaram, helping us cherish every word of it. He would place every morsel of Kamban's refined poetry for our delectation. He shocked us once by declaring in the class on Avatars, "Even Periyar is an Avatar!".
Sivaka Chintamani was as life-breath to Gnanamurthy, our Head of Temil Department. He would narrate many a tales from the life of Sivakan. He used to go to Chennai frequently to write the dialogue for "Kalaiarasi", the film in which MGR and Bhanumathi acted: we eagerly listened to his experiences.
Our English Professor Koilpillai would bring Oliver Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World' alive before our eyes. Its City Night Piece is an unforgettable portrait. Julius Caesar would come alive in his words.
With what simple words did our young professor Sundararajan describe Thomas Gray's poem, "Elegy"! How he shook our hearts with multiple illustrations for the single line,"The paths of glory lead but to the grave"!
Lean-bodied Narayanan who taught us Contemporary History would have no notes with him while he poured out in English as a flood rushing out from a barrage. One must have had good karma to have listened through his tongue the French Revolution and the adventorous victories of Napolean that it calved. My friends laughed at me when I told them that Napolean came in my dreams that night. After the fall of Napolean, in the Vienna Conference that was assembled, they volunteered to reconstruct the previous European Empires once again. "The plants of Legitimacy failed to flourish upon the soil still covered by the lava of the French Revolution": this quote is still green as a poem in the valley of my mind.
Ramadoss, who taught us Indian History was a great dictator. There was no one equal to him in dictating notes.
I wonder what great Tapas we had done to have had them as teachers! How many debates, controversies and competitive challenges we had every day! All the tiredness of riding a cycle to school dissolved in the air, and what fresh feeling, as if we had entered another new world! Happy dancing! Emotional torrent! The days of college are an unforgettable season of early spring in the life of every man."
Does this support my contention?
Our school / college days are wonderful times that we time to time revisit and feel nice and good. I was just talking with Sai few days back and we wondered whether kids of today will relish looking back at their school days once they are grown up. There is so much of pressure and expectations on them that I doubt they will.
ReplyDeleteI think they will, but they won't think of them as carefree days.
ReplyDeleteParents such as you and me are to be blamed for this. When my father brought his friends home, if they asked what I was studying, he would turn to me and question me whether I was doing seventh or eighth standard. That was why I had some happiness. He didn't breathe down my neck.
But then we lived our childhood in a relatively less materialistic world. In fact we don't relive our childhood as much as our parents do. Even today when they speak about their childhood their eyes broaden and you can see the joy in their face.
ReplyDeleteMay be it is we who have grown more materialistic? Not personally you or me, us in general...
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