Several young pupils had written letters for homework, describing a supposedly ‘funny’ incident at school. I was dismayed to read, in letter after letter, how they had hugely ‘enjoyed’ themselves and laughed uproariously at some classmate who had got accidentally hurt (such as by falling down the stairs), or at some teacher who had been inadvertently embarrassed. Is that the sort of thing that should cause us to laugh, instead of commiserating and trying to help out the person in distress? In the same vein, college seniors claim to be having fun ‘ragging’ juniors in the most humiliating and cruel manner. I have seen mobs having fun lynching helpless innocents, beating them to bloody pulp, burning them alive. And I can hear echoes of the jackboots at Auschwitz… is it only when we ourselves become victims of such fun that we remember ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’?
Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple used to say that human nature is the same everywhere, in all its pettiness, crookedness and viciousness – that is why, despite never having left her little, remote, ‘uneventful’ village all her life, she could so easily see through the motives of sophisticated criminals and unravel plots that baffled the best city-smart brains. I have been a small-town teacher for the biggest part of my life, and I can see how right she was. Also, since I deal with young people, I keep worrying, being constantly troubled by the adage ‘Morning shows the day’. The Nazi killers were schoolchildren once. So also all vicious thugs everywhere else...
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9 comments:
It would seem though that people don't change much across time or space. It wasn't very much different when I was in school. Some students always found it funny when someone landed anywhere but on their feet.
And I remember children communities - some children were active bullies, others sided with the bullies, some would quietly walk along trying not to draw the attention of the bullies and their minions, and some would try to actively thwart the bullies. I'm also reminded of not just "The Lord of the Flies" which probably is one of the most insightful books regarding children - but also of "The Kite-runner", and of course I can never really get away from the question and problem of innate evil....and I wonder what chances we have in a world where ten year olds are given drugs and guns and are made into perfect killing machines by the time they hit their teens.
A couple of rather interesting social psychological experiments looked at the question of cuelty from two different perspectives. These were the Zimbardo Prison experiments and The Stanley Milgram experiments. They don't explain the whole range of human cruelty - not by a long shot....but they do provide some interesting readings of human actions and human nature.
I always felt Miss Marple was unusually insightful, and I don't see any reason to doubt you or her (or to doubt myself for that matter) in thinking that human nature is pretty much the same everywhere.
But what can you do about it? I know I worry and brood over the same but I don't know whether that does any good. Neither do I know whether the world as a whole is getting any more vicious and cruel than it had been - but it certainly doesn't seem that we're getting very much better than we had been during the medieval times even though some laws have changed for sure. We seem to have made great leaps forward in regards to technology, but it's an enormous pity that we can't say the same about human consciousness. I guess at the end (and middle) of it all, one can take some heart in the fact that along with the absolute grottiness, there are spots of human kindness as well....
Take care Suvro da.
Love, Shilpi
Sir,
From this blog,It can be understood that it is the same old vicious circle of human nature,that has spread its roots deep into human mind(and even in children).
I am talking about the human nature of feeling delighted at the cost of some other person's misery.
I remember that when I was in your class;once you had given the same topic to write......and some boys had written their damn cause of amusement owing to Nandi sir's cough in class.I remember that you felt angry too with those boys.
Thus it can be seen that some of the present teenagers have become mindless,fickle.....and heartless too.
It is very much lamented that while some people make fun of other's disability rather than helping them out.(While those people....in their childhood had wrtten;or rather crammed essays about "It is not good to laugh at other's disability-justify").
However,this blog reminds me of one of the bengali stories;written by "Bonful".....the story is "Sreepoti Samonto",where an idea of such nasty human nature has been depicted.
With regards,
Soumallya Chattopadhyay
Thank you for the kind and understanding words, Soumallya. It is a comment like that which reassures me that my work as a teacher has not gone in vain - because if my pupils do not learn and appreciate some of the values that I hold so dear, everything else has just been a waste of time beyond making a living; all the stories and comprehension exercises and grammar and vocabulary lists have been trivialities, just like so many formulas in chemistry and tricks in mathematics that you cram to get through examinations and then forget. You have heard me lament that the biggest problem with education today is that we are producing so many 'educated' people whose values can only make a decent man shudder.
Words of appreciation such as yours also make me sigh to think about how few people I have really been able to influence in all these years...!
All fun ain't funny especially if the gags belittle someone else (like Nandi Sirs coughing or students being ragged - is'nt the practise banned?).
But there is a whole genre of humour based on accidents (think Home Alone....), good ole biffo (clown acts in circuses), mimicry, cartoons... not to mention satire and all that goes with pulling tall poppies down. Is this ungracious if it does'nt offend?
Then there is the age related thing. One of the first rhymes kids learn is of Humpty Dumpty - It's pretty drab while he's SITTING on the wall but toddlers find him FALLING OFF hilarious !
And adults (like me) who can crack a smile at acerbic wit or at the antics of Denis the Menace (not all gentlemanly stuff) or Obelix belting the Romans. But hey, I'm a good fella in real life, even if I say so myself!!
Let me spill the beans - I'm guilty at laughing at someone else's misery. Like when Ishant Sharma made his debut in Perth - this was after the Harbajan-Symonds fiasco in Sydney, he got a beautiful fast inswinging lifter past Rick Ponting's bat....did'nt bowl him, oh no, this cuckoo did'nt fly over but nested in his GROIN....Boy, that has had me in splits ever since ! God help my valueless soul!
Laughter is good but better still if its based on timeless human values and hopefully we'll grow to that stage some time soon.
Best wishes....Bev.
On a rejoinder to Soumallya's comment, something very similar had happened in our class too in Xavier's. I don't remember what exactly my peers had laughed at in their essays, but I am more or less certain someone else's misfortune had evoked the amusement and provided the laughter - and this was probably in our tenth standard! Funny too that all this happened after being 'taught' right from childhood that it is wrong to make merry of someone else's weakness or misfortune, as you have astutely observed. In a way this post reminds me of Robert Fulghum's classic 'All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten' and I wonder how little heed we pay to the lessons we are supposed to learn in Kindergarten, or perhaps, as we grow into adults we make it a point to forget them as soon as living upto them becomes just a little bit uncomfortable.
On a slightly lighter note, I thought of sharing a curious and perhaps amusing incident that happened to me when I was in school. I am a little forgetful in nature but not the sort who tends to forget his spectacles or purse or umbrella; queer though it may seem, my memory deserts me in the plainest of circumstances and in situations where sane human beings are supposed to keep their memories intact. It so happened that once, probably when I was in the fifth standard, I forgot to bring my schoolbag home! No reasons, no excuses, I just simply, plainly, blissfully forgot! But if I turn the clock back a little, it must gone like this – the bell must have rung announcing end of school for the day and I must have eagerly and hurriedly run outdoors forgetting my schoolbag in the process (though I still wonder how I managed it). And when a friend asked me as to where my bag might be our school bus was already halfway through its journey!
Though I laugh at the incident now, it was no laughing matter then. It was mid academic session and I was petrified by the thought of what explanation I would give to my parents. I received my due share of admonishment, but that is another story and luckily I found my schoolbag the very next day in the Headmaster’s office (apparently some well wisher who knew both my bag and my forgetful nature had kept it safely out of harm’s way), but the mental picture of a school kid returning home with only his water bottle hung around his neck and without his customary schoolbag still sends me into peals of laughter.
Sayan Datta.
Speaking of deriving fun amidst gross violence, the practice of 'birthday bumps' comes instantly to my mind. If you don't know already, this practice empowers all the residents of a hostel with the unquestionable privilege of kicking the birthday boy's posterior as hard as they can, right on the eve of his birthday (the practice is largely prevalent in Hostels, but these days it's widespread in schools and even IT companies too). This horrible act is perpetuated by a large group of boys, who take it upon themselves to celebrate their friend's birthday and having 'fun'- first by kicking the poor boy with enormous ferocity, and then throwing him up into the air and back down again for the number of times as his age, only to throw him high into the air on the last count and then letting him fall on his back to the ground with a resounding thud.
This form of celebration, or having fun, has become so common these days that it is naturally considered as a part of the birthday ritual. I have tried to resist this form of violent atrocity many a times in my college life- only to be scoffed back as being a wimp or a killjoy. Mind you, these are supposedly 'educated' boys with decent upbringings who sincerely believe they are having genuine enjoyment while beating a friend black and blue- Does this augur a healthy picture of India's youth to you?
Thanks,
Joydeep
Suvro da,
You've influenced more people than you'll know. Considering that you probably have more than 3500 students (old and new - not including current batches) - and each of them most likely changed one important thing about themselves, which they might not have changed at all if they hadn't had you as their teacher (and more than a handful changed more than one little thing is my guess), I'd say that you've had your hand in sending out some people into the world who are (if nothing else) a tiny bit kinder, a tiny bit more conscientious and a little less mean - and only because of you. It can't be otherwise. That's what great teachers do. And I have no reason to gush because I've seen two other teachers who had somewhat similar influences on their students - although they were far less attached to their students....
I know there's no way you'll know how many people you've influenced - unless you become an overnight celebrity, and then you will have plenty more people saying "Oh yes, he did so much for me. I was a favourite student of his, don't you know!" - so maybe some day you will know. I'm almost convinced about this - or maybe it's just hope...but still, you mustn't sigh too much.
In any case - I did get an answer to: what can you do...I was wondering why you'd put up a rather sad and ugly post here.
Sayan - your tale and the narration are both amusing and your tale reminded me of the time when as a sixth grader I had managed to leave my bag at the bus-stop while on my way to school because I was preoccupied with my cardboard horse (made for the Art class) of which I was terribly proud and possessive about (so I guess I did at least have a reason for boarding the bus and realising half-way that there was something missing).
Just a couple of other thoughts which crossed my mind when I read your comment: for sure we are taught all "those things" very early on, but my personal thought is that....
1) one never really learns unless one sees for one's self as to why something is right or wrong.
2) we memorise morals much the same way we memorise nursery rhymes, without really thinking about them.
Joydeep's comment for some reason (or maybe none?) reminded me of boxing, as a professional sport. This is one sport which simply does not make any sense to me!
That's all for now, I guess...Take care.
Dear Shilpi di,
Thanks a lot for your thoughts.
Come to think of it, whatever you have said is really so obvious, whereas I was beating a little about the bush. There's a moral in this I suppose - we do not need to look for complicated explanations for the problems ailing our age and society. The root of most of them is the same, it seems to me: we have forgotten to think, feel and realize. No wonder, I have among my students those who haven't read 'Alice in wonderland' and those who haven't liked it (Read: haven't understood it).
I hope a time comes when people realize that certain things are just simply wrong. There neither are nor can be explanantions/ justifications of things that are plainly wrong as they are independent of circumstances.
Sayan
Look up the most recent post in Amrit's blog, folks: it's about violence and torture. Also, don't forget to read up the comments! You'll see why I asked as soon as you read them...
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