Strings of Melody_5

Today Mr. Shirish said that he will teach me the next 10 Alankars only of I played all the previous ones correctly. And then something amazing happened, I sat there for an hour playing all that I had learned till now and my arms and legs did not pain as such as they did earlier. I felt very happy when I realised that but I also know I have a long-long way to go. Although I missed some parts he was indulgent enough to teach me the next part which was – and I only realised it later – terrible! It was the most difficult set of notes I ever received! I agreed with Mr. Bhalerao that it was nothing as compared to what was going to come but still, at this stage it was the most difficult thing. I could readily anticipate myself practice these for the coming few weeks but I wished I could do it is lesser time. I practiced all that session and even asked for some extra time, which he was most happy to allot. I was very happy at that moment in fact I have been happy all this day for I am pursuing the hobby which I has thirsted me for years! 

Strings of Melody_4

It had been five days since I played the violin and so I feared if I had forgotten some things, but to my astonishment as soon as I placed my hands on the violin I could play everything Mr. Shirish asked me to. After a short revision, he taught me the next 5 Alankars. They were pretty simple but obviously more difficult than the previous 5. I started practicing and he guided me where ever I went wrong. After sometime when my hands and legs could no longer support me, he asked me to halt and I handed over the violin to him. He played to me, the same 5 Alankars I was practicing, in different styles just to reenergize me. It was wonderful, when he played the same violin it appeared as if he did nothing to it and the violin sang on its own. On the contrary, I strived to make my violin sing the correct notes. This is something inspired me. I want to achieve the same level of expertise as him; I know it is going to take ages (Mr. Shirish has been playing it for last 35 years!) but I am determined. He says for that it happen it will have to come out of my heart and not hands. My heart is already there inside the violin I just have to make it beat correctly and master this skill. I am really looking forward to learning that entire he has to offer and I grateful to him for he is teaching with such great interest.

Tutoring the Little Buds_3

"Family is not an important thing. It's everything."

                                                                                     -- Michael J. Fox

 

 A person’s family is his/her first teacher; it is also the group of people the person is most attached to. However, as people grow up they often ignore their families and take them for granted. Such behavioral trends inflict the family first and then with time can become a global issue bothering the entire human society. When we were planning about today’s session, I, my classmates and our supervisor Ms. Shaila decided that we would teach our little gems the importance of family. However, since they were too young to understand the complexity of relations, we came up with the most elementary of all activities.

When our session started, we all sat in a huge circle and gave a coloured sheet of paper to each of them. Then we applied some poster paint on their hands and asked them to imprint it on the paper. After their hand prints dried, we asked them to draw one of their family members on each finger. Subsequently, I and my classmates collaboratively collected all the papers and cut out all those little imprints. We told them that each finger on their hand, represented a member of their family; and just like they can form a strong fist only when all their fingers are clutched together, their families can only be strong if all the members keep together. I doubt if they really understood the concept of unity but they did become more conservative about their families. I think that was enough for their age. But there came one problem which I think was exceedingly funny.  My student Aabhas, had more than five people in his family, a bolt of lightning run down my nerve when he told me that! How could I possibly miss that condition? I felt a little embarrassed and to cover it up I told that his palm was the sixth member which, probably the strongest of all. He quickly related it to his father which a relieving since I did not want to appear dumb there. A nice brain-teaser I would say!

We also made them watch a video based on today’s theme. This was seriously a great challenge. Those little ‘bunnies’ just wouldn’t stop jumping about! It was very difficult to make them sit at one place. But it is rightly said, parenting is the most demanding of all skills, but also the most rewarding of all. Very soon their indefatigability waved off as the video started possessing their interest. They then sat quietly (quietness for them includes a little murmur) and patiently listen to what we said. The occurrence of this incidence, suddenly seemed to teach me something. I realised how beautiful it is to be a guardian and could feel the ecstasy of being one.

Hindi Diwas (Day)

India is famous for its linguistic diversity. Some statistics suggest that it is home to 1,618 languages including some major dialects. While the accuracy of that account is dubitable it is not incorrect to say that languages in India vary invariably across the subcontinent making it the region with maximum linguistic multiplicity.

Nevertheless, Hindi is very special amongst them. On 14 September 1949, Hindi was accepted and affirmed as the official language of India by the Constituent Assembly. Thus, this day is celebrated across the country as Hindi Diwas (Day). Since I opted for Hindi SL in the Language B of the IBDP, I along with my classmates and Hindi teacher, Mrs. Vijayalaxmi (also our CAS coordinator) , planned a small program which intended to elaborate the beauty and importance of Hindi and this day.

Primary students singing.

We planned that we would work on designing the program for about 3 hours and conclude with a 2 hours show today. Since this activity was creativity based, I wanted to put in something new, so that the program leaves an everlasting impact on the audience. In addition one of our major motives was to address the critical issue of regional language depreciation in India and around the world. This is a much discussed topic of global significance since almost all the cultures today are facing the risk of their traditional languages getting contaminated and to some extent extinct. India struggling to preserve Hindi and other languages in their rich and more palatable form. The sudden introduction of new languages and internet jargon has facilitated communication; albeit it has undermined the efficiency of individual languages. Hindi is one of them. In past 4 decades, Hindi has undergone a drastic alteration making it a mixture of worldly languages which is comprehensible to the laymen, but has left it literally tasteless. In order to preserve the literature and the very beauty of Hindi – and other languages – it is vital that their importance and beauty be explicitly explained to the upcoming generations.

Me during the quiz.

With this thought in mind we sat together and came up with an outline of the program and divided tasks amongst ourselves. I took up the challenging task of comparing Prashna- manjusha (Quiz)! I say challenging because I have conducted quizzes before but none of them were in Hindi! That being said it was very difficult to decide the sort of questions I was supposed to ask! It was a language related quiz and the one intending to promote it, so it was important that it not only fulfilled this criterion but also was enjoyable for the spectators. I researched the internet and the books in my library for suitable material. Consequently, I planned a quiz with 3 rounds: first of word meanings (shabdhartha); second of proverbs (kahavatien); and third of idioms (muhavarien). Each round consisted of 2 sub-rounds: English – Hindi and vice versa. I had to collect material and edit it to fit into the limitations of the program. However with the other academic assignments it became increasingly difficult to draw time for this work. I literally found myself running haywire to get my things done. But I stood committed to the task and finally completed it last night.

Today was the show time! We started the program with a Hindi prayer and thought. Then after a brief introduction, some poetry and speech, it was my turn! I knew that my schoolmates possessed very scanty interest for Hindi, so I tried to make things casual and comical. Then I asked the team members of Ruby and Sapphire house to take their seats and commenced the game. Soon, both the teams and the audience engaged their interest in the questions and the show culminated smoothly. Almost everyone displayed some liking for some of the components of our program which was good because it implied that we were nearing our aim. It was good to see how people reacted to certain question and that their affinity towards Hindi bloomed back with a brighter shine.

Language is important, more important is keeping it rich, vivid and flavourful; that is what I learned from today and wish to propagate. Language is the tool of communication, sharper the tool the better one communicates.