The choice of the title should not surprise people who are aware of my recent work and what I do. Still, worth mentioning again that I work in the education sector (primarily advising/supporting governments) and in recent years, focus more on early learning which the New Education Policy (NEP) and state governments across the country prioritise as Foundation Literacy and Numeracy (FLN).
Over a visit to friends, I was recounting a few anecdotes from my childhood to a "FLN grade" girl - my niece, Ohana and I thought some of them would be a good reads for others as well.
Will start with couple of stories shared by my mother about her grandfather. He (Banshi Babu or simply Babu for the villagers) was a really influential and affluent zamindar in the Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha who was revered and feared. He had a tall, strong figure and a booming voice to support that image. I had seen some black and white pictures of him at my late grandfather's (Aja's) place, including one holding a ten month old me, and I concur!
My mother was a good student all her life as my mausis (aunts) and other family members would share and yet again I had seen black and white pictures of her as a school girl with two pony tails, holding aloft a large shied/trophy; but she did not start out like this. In her early years, in the village school, which as you might have guessed, was set-up by Banshi Babu, she was often called out by a particular teacher as a stupid and naughty girl. One day, failing to do something that was asked of her, my mother was pulled to the front of the class by the teacher and as a means of chastisement, he wrote the Odiya word 'Gadha' (donkey/fool/stupid) in reverse on the blackboard and asked her to paste her cheek to it. So, my mother spent the entire day with the word 'Gadha' written on her cheek. Well, those were the days no one had heard of capital punishment ! This teacher actually had some tiff with our family and clearly the only thing he could do to extract revenge from the zamindar of the village was to take it out on the old man's grand-daughter.
My uncle (a year older to my mother) was furious when he saw my mother back at home and took her to their grandfather, who instead of getting angry at the teacher and unleashing wrath on the poor gentleman simply asked my mother
'He asked me do some basic addition and subtraction...' my mother was almost in tears.
'Cry out loud you stupid girl ! Well, everyone makes mistakes, but you didn't have to roam around the whole day across the school with this 'Gadha' printed on your face. At least wipe out the chalk mark on your face now.' my uncle was clearly furious.
'But he asked me not to...' my mother said sobbingly.
'Okay, okay. I do not know why there is so much fuss about this simple matter.' their grandfather was trying to restore order.
Hara, Gun, Fede, Misha; Au sabu patha phasare phasa !!
My mother retired as a Maths teacher from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bhubaneswar and had always been a sought after teacher, often teaching secondary grades and primary grades with equal joy and elan. One day quite irritated by my lack of 'grade appropriate learning levels' she even threatened to look up my Engineering Mathematics book and teach me during my graduation!
She had developed a unique style of introducing mathematics topics/chapters through poems and rhymes she composed. She would get the children to read out with her the poems/rhymes before she got into the chapter. The kids would love the rhymes and often remember them even if they might have forgotten some topics of the chapter. After many years, her students (and to some extent my father) requested her and pushed her to pen down all those rhymes and publish them.
The second anecdote is related to forgetting and understanding and yet again relates to Banshi Babu. My mother has five sisters and being one of the older ones, she literally doubled up as a teacher, friend, confidante and even mother to them as they were growing up in Jagatsinghpur. One day as my mother was trying hard to teach one of her younger sisters and comparing one with the other, their grandfather was passing by. He enquired what the matter was in his booming voice. My uncle sprung up from somewhere and tried to pass this as a usual fight among his six sisters and get them reprimanded by the old man.
Banshi babu rather sat both my mother and my uncle down and told them about different types of learners using 'Permutation and Combination' of two simple words - 'Cheer' (meaning taking a long time) and 'Bega' (meaning fast/quick).
He said "look, there are all kinds of students and they all learn and memorise differently. there is:
2. cheer-cheera (one who takes a long time to remember or understand a concept, but once done, remembers the same for long time)
4. cheer-bega (one who takes a really long time to remember or understand a concept but alas! also forgets it too fast!)
I move to my own (paternal) grandmother for my final story. She was a very tall, dark and strong woman. I can't recall very well if she had completed her school or not. Mostly likely she finished primary grades and that was it. She was quite strong physically and would proudly share a story of her being able to lift the large brass pots (think of something twice in size/breadth of a gas cylinder) used to boil rice, which some of the men in our large extended family could not! She was quite strong mentally and emotionally as well and understood the value of education. She would get up a 3 AM, finish all the chores and make some tiffin for my father to carry before he got on the early morning train to Bhubaneswar during his graduation.
All through my growing up years, she was often given charge of ensuring that I spend the required time at studies, particularly because she and I shared the room at our village home. On the rare, eagerly awaited days when mother and father would go out to Bhubaneswar for some work, she would be the 'villian' who would ensure that I am 'sitting in front of books', 'not watching TV' and would happily chase me down with a cane in hand, if I had managed to sneak away to play with friends in our village. Interestingly, we had a parrot whom she had taught many things to say including 'Papu, patha padhunu' (meaning, Papu, why don't you study!). I would often call out in frustration, 'as if there were not enough humans urging me to study all the time!!'.
I have never learnt Odiya at school. I spent my FLN years (Grade 1-3) at Vishakhapatnam where my mother started her career as a teacher at KV Malkapuram for their mandatory 'outside the state' posting. We came back to KV Khurda Road/Jatani after few years and that's where I finished my school. Again, no chance of learning Odiya at school.
It was my grandmother and to some extent my grandfather who taught me to read, write and understand Odiya. I vividly remember some of the first books which were essentially 'Illustrated Ramayana and Mahabhratas' that my grandmother introduced to me. She would spend the entire afternoon and evening with me and my sister encouraging her to practice writing Odiya letters, numerals and/or getting me to read aloud stuff from one or the other books. I really took on to mythology and the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata; so much so, that in later years my grandfather and his friends would often call on me to resolve a conflict among old men of "who was whose son" or.... "who married who" with respect to any of the mythological characters from these epics. They were super proud of me. Yet, again all that credit goes to them as my first teachers. Had it not been for them, I would not have been able to read and write in my own mother tongue.
Thank you won't be enough for such teachers!
