Holiday Spirits - reviewing A Christmas Carol

The winter holidays begin in 3 days. In this frame of mind (where I am already halfway to Brazil), I am naturally at my lethargic and lazy best - hence the posting of this review, which I wrote around last year for our School newsletter. In the spirit of Eco-friendly recycling and the impending holidays, I reproduce below my little write-up on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Enjoy!

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More than 150 years have gone by since Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Story of Christmas was first published, yet the story continues to be told and re-told from generation to generation. It is a story so familiar to us that it is almost easy to forget that few of us have actually ever read it. Our imaginations can conjure at will its most famous characters; even without having read Dickens' cutting indictment of him, Scrooge is always pictured in our mind's eye as a hunched old man with a drooping, pointed nose. His name is as synonymous to us with miserliness as Romeo and Juliet's are with Love; as Arjuna's is with Bravery and as heart-shaped sun-glasses are with Lolita.

I thus approached 'A Christmas Carol' with a mixture of curiosity as well as presumption. Would the story read any differently than it is told? Would it be a typically Victorian moralistic tale or would it reveal greater depth? Are some classics better left…unread?

Happily for me, the answer to the last question is a resounding 'No'. Only a few pages into the novella I realized that spoken summaries can never do justice to the vividness of Dickens' writing. I found myself utterly engrossed in long passages devoted to, for example, a quality of light or even a table setting! Even more surprising were the dark and disturbing images contained within what I always thought to be somewhat of a 'fairy', feel-good story. It is truly a testament to strong writing and narratorial ability when a story you know well can still keep you in suspense and, occasionally, terrify you.

The greatest revelation, however, was that Dickens created in Scrooge, not a black-and-white caricature, but a complex, intelligent man who is, indeed, not as morally different from us as we would like to believe. As we accompany Scrooge and his ghost-guides on their journey through time, Dickens uses gentle humour and rhetorical stratagems to gradually bring us to a surprising understanding - namely, that Scrooge ultimately represents you and I, stripped of our pretenses and justifications. The moral message of the story hinges upon this crucial realization, for it is in identifying ourselves in Scrooge that we can truly attempt to change ourselves.

As the evenings get chillier and we approach the 25th of December, it would serve us well, in today's cynical world, to (re)visit this timeless tale and travel along with Scrooge on a journey that is as much about the spirit of Christmas as it is about discovering who we are.

Movie Review:
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas 

It would never have occurred to me to see, let alone buy a movie called The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas if I hadn't accidentally encountered it while channel surfing one day. I caught it at a particularly cute scene, in which Dolly Parton (who plays the Madame of the brothel in question, Miss Mona) and Burt Reynolds (Sheriff Ed Earl) sing 'Sneakin' Around', a cheerful little duet about their clandestine rendezvous.  I didn't watch it properly after that but bought it, years later, when it was on sale at my local DVD place.

Based on a true-life story and adapted from a musical stage production by the same name, the movie follows the trials and tribulations of 'the Chicken Ranch', a century-old brothel in small-town Texas. The existence of this beloved institution is threatened when Melvin P. Thorpe, a self-styled moral crusader and television reporter, targets the illegal operations of the brothel for a tell-all expose. Matters come to a head when the Sheriff confronts Thorpe on-air and inadvertently compromises the reputation of his town and his paramour, Miss Mona. The plot is played out through these two central characters, although the movie features lively supporting roles, most notably by Charles Durning in his role as the 'sidestepping' Governor. The casting is superb and the actors live and breathe their roles, especially Dolly Parton, who shines as the Madame. As one reviewer said, "You can't help liking Miss Mona - she's not like any prostitute or madam the 1982 movie-going public had ever seen. She's a ray of sunshine, totally forthright, honest, optimistic, generous, open-hearted and sweet."

I watched this movie with my husband who, like me, was thoroughly charmed by it. We both were struck by how natural the relationship between Mona and the Sheriff is - like any happy couple, they are not just lovers but good friends. And, might I add, good people.

Apparently the movie didn't do very well at the box office, possibly because of its controversial title. Family viewing it is not, but neither is it vulgar or inappropriate. As Mona says in her song 'A Lil' Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place', "there's nothin' dirty goin' on!"

Morning Assembly

Morning Assembly is a ritual that most Indian Public School students are familiar with. It takes place almost every day and follows a prescribed format – the hymn of the day, a prayer, a ‘thought provoking’ service and the daily announcements. It lasts anywhere between 15 minutes to half an hour. Every once in a while (usually before the holidays), there is a Special Assembly, which can last up to 3 hours long.

I have always been somewhat wary of attending Assembly. I would much rather spend the time sipping a nice cup of tea, reading the morning papers or even just going back to work in my office. These activities provoke much more thought and reflection, in my experience, than an institutionalized prayer or thought-of-the-day.

Retrospection, contemplation, knowing right from wrong…I feel they don't come from attending Assemblies. Indeed, we hardly ever had Assembly at the schools I went to (perhaps the concept isn’t as ingrained in International schools), and I turned out ok. Besides, I am uncomfortable with the idea of structuring ‘philosophical’ musings into 15-minute capsules. To me it replicates the kind of formulaic and empty thinking that has spawned so many self-help books. Is it even possible to have a new ‘truth’ or ‘life lesson’ to talk about every day? How much wisdom can anyone impart or ingest on a daily basis?

The value of Assembly, amongst many other features of the Indian education system, needs to be re-thought, especially for senior school students (as H.S. Singha argues in his book School Education in India). Fewer Assemblies focusing on specific content (as opposed to concepts) would probably make more sense for today's world-weary youth.  

Classified 

My sister and fellow blogger, lightlight wrote a whole post on my return to blogging yesterday. It chronicles my movements over the past couple of years and heaps totally undeserved praise on my capabilities as a blogger. I'm not just fishing for compliments. I actually grimaced a little when I read "She always has thoughtful, if mildly intimidating, things to say."

In the span of my two days' return to blogging, I have deleted an entire post (which no one had commented on, justly) and edited most of the other posts I wrote. I kept the ones I wrote during my Masters untouched, as a testament to college juvenilia, but had a difficult time reading some of the out-of-India posts. I was a different person then - lovelorn, frustrated, deeply cynical and directionless. A lot of my posts exposed my insecurities more than I am now comfortable with, hence the editing.

After reading my sister's comments, however, I have to wonder whether it was right to change my posts. And by returning to blogging, am I committing myself to a cycle of erasing, editing and rewriting?

Musing upon this, I remembered Vikram Seth's Forward to 'Mappings' in The Collected Poems, an anthology of all of his poems to date. I had always enjoyed reading this Forward because of its remarkable candour and conversational style. This part, in particular, resonated with me:

"When Penguin India...asked me for permission to republish Mappings, I hesitated. ...I wondered about the poems...some of which now struck me as embarrassingly callow. I did not wish to make my readers cringe by offering them a second helping of my juvenilia. But a friend...told me that she much preferred my voice in Mappings to that of my later book of poems. Whether I agreed with that slightly alarming judgment or not, I felt I ought not to withdraw a book that had elicited it."

Some of the poems in Mappings are among my favourites of all time. Perhaps I will switch my internal editor off for a while.

The Diplomat's Daughter Returns

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and remembered my own, aging, neglected one today.

To be honest, I have thought about reviving this blog often but either couldn't (a) sign in (b) find anything to write about or (c) find the time. Life has gotten busier since JNU and the boss (at the school where I now work) has been on major office patrol lately. But this Saturday morning, the weekend beckons and I feel inspired again. So here I am - a little rusty but eager to sharpen my tools and get going!

The blogs that prompted me to write today are all about education. I've always been interested in education and, now that it pays the rent, I like to keep up with issues and concerns relating to school education...well, as much as I can. I was amazed not just by how many teachers are writing blogs, but by the way blogging is incorporated into the classroom and learning experience. I also read some blogs by students - the quality of writing and thinking was astonishingly high.

I say all this with a twinge of sadness, knowing that such practices are still decades away in India. Its not that we aren't using e-learning technology in our classes. Its not even that there isn't enough funding - private schools in India, especially those owned by wealthy industrialists, have plenty of money to put to good use. No, the massive stumbling block in most Indian public schools is the conservative and often condescending mindset towards young people. While schools may profess to be 'liberal' and use fancy terms like "pupil ownership", the truth is that a vital ingredient in the teacher-taught relationship is missing - faith. Rarely are students allowed to criticize policy, make meaningful contributions to school events, or even read for pleasure. Every part of their day is structured, every minute accounted for. In such an environment, where is the impetus for retrospection, creative thought or action? What are they really learning and what are we teaching them?

In the effort to adopt the 'no child left behind' ideal, some students have become complacent, knowing that their substandard performance will be blamed on their teachers and mentors. To avoid the inevitable tongue-lashing that follows, teachers turn to spoon-feeding in order to maintain high class averages and, most importantly, their bonuses. The ultimate reward? A place in the top 20 annual ranking of schools in India.