It was Teachers' Day today, at least in India. To mark the occasion, here are a couple of passages from the new Naseeruddin Shah memoir. This one about a much-feared class-teacher named Miss Winnie Perry:
In a similar vein, this bit about a Brother D F Burke, who was responsible for many memorable movie screenings in the school – something Naseer
remains grateful for – but who was also famous for doling out physical punishment:
And to round things off, this classic teacherly Naseer song, which will warm (or scald) the cockles of your heart:
If you were to ask any junior student of fifties Sem about Miss Perry, it’s an even bet she still figures in his nightmares […] She would gleefully play along with our whispered suspicions that she went home on a broomstick, and when in really severe mode she used the handle of a feather duster for chastisement.Even if you know Mister Shah isn’t the sort to bother with such trifling things as being polite, you might be blindsided by the chapter's ending:
Sometime in the mid-nineties, I learnt she was in a home for the aged in Lucknow. I wrote her a letter, I don’t know why, and she replied saying she remembered me, but I doubt if she did. I heard later that she’d suffered a brutal death at the hands of an intruder. I don’t suspect it was one of her students.There's something moving though about that letter-sending bit and the "I don't know why". I think it captures the push-pull relationship so many of us have with teachers we didn’t like – or even despised – in our school days, but whom we remember with a distant nostalgic fondness later in life when we can see them as frail, diminished and incapable of wielding hegemony over us, and perhaps understand some of the disappointments they must have suffered with students over the years.
In a similar vein, this bit about a Brother D F Burke, who was responsible for many memorable movie screenings in the school – something Naseer
remains grateful for – but who was also famous for doling out physical punishment: My prayer for him is that in the big projection room in the sky he has the most comfortable seat and an unending store of his favourite movies for all eternity. That, and I also hope he keeps getting rapped on the head with a hard knuckle every now and then when he least expects it.
And to round things off, this classic teacherly Naseer song, which will warm (or scald) the cockles of your heart:
OMG, Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal and Pooja Bhatt! I feel so old. Who is the guy, he looks familiar but I can't place him. Now that I have school age children of my own, I have a whole new appreciation of teachers. Admittedly, I am envious of American teachers who get 3 months off in the summer. I had very mediocre teachers myself, and the one teacher I fondly remember is enshrined as the answer to my password reset question. It's a certain kind of immortality, for sure.
ReplyDeleteThat scene is magnificent, isn't it. Feels like it should belong to the 80s, but it's really 1993 - which means that from our vantage point those two decades are blurring together already. We'll know our generation is truly senile when we start waxing nostalgic about such things as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Koi Mil Gaya.
DeleteTastes and reactions differ so much.
DeleteI haven't seen this film but this song sequence gets on my nerves and always has. My reaction to the scene and all the Mahesh Bhatt directed films I've seen: FAKE
Even Naseer comes across as hammy and affected
Anon: well, of course tastes and reactions differ - that goes without saying - but I trust you got that I was being ironical about this song?
DeleteI can't believe that's from '93. You are so right about the decades blurring together. I didn't really keep up with Indian movies in the '00s and '10s so I'm having somewhat of an anachronistic experience watching them now. I recently discovered that the local libraries in Minneapolis have quite an impressive collection of Hindi films to check out. I'm sad to say my Hindi feels like it's getting rusty, so all the movie watching is entertaining as well as functional!
DeleteYou're were being ironical ... that's a relief!
DeleteNo, I didn't get that
Oh that made me very emotional. The parts of the book you mentioned. I feel like that about not only teachers but about many people who had some authority on me. I also think Naseer is a very good writer. He writes the way Indians write who were taught by British teachers in 50s and 60s.
ReplyDeleteHe writes the way Indians write who were taught by British teachers in 50s and 60s
DeleteHeavens, what a broad generalisation that is. But we've disagreed in the past about such things as the nature or necessity or good writing/good English (on the Aamir Khan post for example), so I'll let it be.
:)) Yeah, it is a statement based on a very small sample that I know, so it is an incorrect statement. Let me try to make it more swallow-able. I think there is a British quality to his written English or may be there is an Anglo-Indian quality. I am not sure, it is a guess. What do you think?
DeleteTo an extent, yes. But given how much Naseer dislikes some of his teachers, it's a bit ironical that he got his English-writing skills from them.
DeleteI feel like that about not only teachers but about many people who had some authority on me.
And by this, I'm assuming you mean you feel a secret glee when you hear about the violent deaths of teachers and other authority figures...
You are being sarcastic, I think. I meant I feel sad when I see them in their old age often just as a shadow of what they used to be. There's a saying in Hindi (khandhar bata rahein hai, imarat aalishan thee). Khair woh aalishan thee ya nahin, kaafi strict zaroor thee aur ab taras aata hai unhain aise dekh ke :))
DeleteWasn't being completely sarcastic - there was a genuine question there too. I thought you were saying that you felt the same way after reading the passages quoted here. But those quotes include a bit where Naseer is darkly irreverent about the brutal death of a teacher he had hated in school.
DeleteBut thanks for clarifying. The bit about feeling sad/nostalgic when you think of teachers in their old age was by me, not Naseer (though he probably would agree too).
I am a bit confused. Quoting Naseer, "I learnt she was in a home for the aged in Lucknow. I wrote her a letter, I don’t know why," I interpreted it as Naseer being emotional about a teacher who is now old and that too in an old age home. I paid disproportionate attention to "old age of teacher", "old age home" and I assumed that writing letter was more emotional than Naseer would otherwise be. Anyway, thanks for your comment. I think I will have to be careful while reading Naseer's book. On a funny note, I think you would approve of people feeling a glee when they hear about violent deaths of teachers and other authority figures (since you are a Hitchcock fan) (I hope you don't mind)
DeleteI interpreted it as Naseer being emotional about a teacher who is now old and that too in an old age home
DeleteWell, yes, but that emotional-ness can coexist with having many bad memories of the teacher, right? That was the whole point of the post to begin with. The combination of fear/resentment with a distant nostalgic affection.
Yes, you are right....
Delete"perhaps understand some of the disappointments they must have suffered "
ReplyDeleteAnd understand too the pressures of adult life and of being a parent or teacher. Most parents have had occasion to look back at something and wonder: did i really say/do that?
Oh, by the way, is this book ghostwritten?
ReplyDeleteNo it isn't
Delete