Hello! Welcome to the sports season. Here is the thirty second video about New Blossom school in the book ‘Spinning into a Career’.
Teachers engage the students in outdoor sports. Students engage in indoor games as well. Active participation of the teachers is expected. Teachers dressed in white conduct sports. On several occasions, Ruchi plays cricket with the students. A Parsi teacher wants Ruchi to teach English to a student living in Salisbury Hill. The coaching session is for three hours a week. Ruchi gets an extra income. It is a private college, and no government rules are applicable. October 31 is a tragic day. An announcement is made in school and college that there will be no classes. There is a call for bandh. The Indian prime minister is shot dead. Primary school children are made to sit in the hall while children of higher classes with vehicles may leave the premises early. Teachers have to wait till their parents come and pick their children up. The next day is a holiday.
Ruchi reads Wuthering Heights by Emile Bronte to students enacting the story by using various tones and facial expressions. Ruchi teaches junior college classes between 8.00 a.m. and 10.00 a.m. Students in various colored clothes enter in making the class appear like Bollywood. When Ruchi reads a poem, a student from the last bench sings an English song using the last word of the stanza. She neglects him and continues. Ruchi struggles to gain control 0ver adolescents. While Ruchi is teaching, a student hurls a paper rocket at her. The paper has the words ‘ I love you’ written on it. Emboldened by anger, she goes to the headmaster and narrates the incident. The next day, the headmaster suspends him from college. Ruchi teaches the fiction ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’ dramatically. She wants students to get into the fiction. The fights with the shark and the squid are heroic.
A trip is arranged by the school to Saloni Khadi in Bhimpoli. Boys and girls sing songs and amuse themselves in the bus. Ruchi too, sings songs. Ruchi likes the beach. She sings songs for the students who surround her. Students have a dip in the beach. They form groups and play antakshari, rings, volleyball and cricket. After the thrilling picnic, the bus drops Ruchi at her home and students are dropped at their respective homes. A picnic is arranged for the college students at Swareshwar, beyond Bhimpoli. It involves trekking. It is the rainy season. When the boys get down from the bus, each one of them is checked for whiskey and brandy bottles. The place is a green forest with trees, shrubs, creepers, and stones covered with moss due to the rains. There is an attacking smell of wet wood, leaves, flowers and wild berries. There are swamps and the path is slippery.
The principal’s daughter accompanies Ruchi to the ancient temple of Swareshwar. The doors of the inner precincts of the temple are closed and locked. It seems to be abandoned. Ruchi and her colleagues sit on the parapet of the wall. It is a lonely place. Ruchi loudly sings the ghazals of Jeet Sinha and Preeti Sinha. She sings as sonorously as possible. In the silence, the students decode the song well. One of them shouts loudly,” We must take the madam to the music director.” The way back from the jungle is arduous and tiring. She enjoys the rain, the cool winds, the fresh forest air and good trekking. The comedy of Laurel and Hardy comes alive when Ruchi stands behind Sandhya, making a paltry figure. Sandhya laughs and says, ” You know Ruchi, we are the Laurel and Hardy of this institution. Sandhya has a positive and enlivening spirit.
Thank you for listening. We shall continue with Ruchi’s experiences in New Blossom in the next video. Till then, goodbye!
Video can be viewed on You Tube by typing, ‘Spinning into a Career’ by Usha Raman.
