In conjunction with Teacher’s Day, I dedicate this post to
Mr. Narasimhan a.k.a Narasimha ”Vaadhiyar” of our primary School in Chennai.
“Vaadhiyar” in Tamil is synonym for teacher.
Rewind 1966/67, I don’t precisely remember the year. I was in the Fourth standard. The morning school assembly was on. Narasimha "Vaadhiyar" (NV), the powerful “Sir”, more a terror, always conducted the assembly. Students and teachers were terrified of him, as
he used to mercilessly cane and won't spare even the tender children. I don't remember even parents making any fuss about
it. Of course, there was a Headmistress, a holy
cow. NV was making various announcements about exams and holidays.
Finally, as is the daily ritual, the students and teachers
sang the National Anthem. In the
process, I was "humming" the musical version of the Anthem, without lyrics. Our class teacher curiously observed it and dutifully
reported to NV after the assembly, which I was not aware of. (By the way, “Teacher” then
was a reference to feminine gender and “Sir” to the masculine
counterpart). After the National Anthem was over, we moved in line towards our
respective classrooms.
The next day: the assembly, as usual started. Announcements were made. Before the National Anthem was sung, to my
utter disbelief (and to the joy of many other students and teachers), NV throated a
sarcastic reference about me, in his customary high-decibel pitch. I thought for a moment that he was showering good words about me, which added
to my confusion. Finally, slowly but
surely, he exploded that I made “fun” of
the National Anthem the previous day by singing the “musical version” sans
lyrics. True, I hummed but never in the
least meant to make “fun”, as screamed
by the NV. And I was lifted aloft by him as if he held the “World Cup” in his
hands, taken around the assembly arena twice to make sure that everybody gave a
scornful look at me, and ensured I was sufficiently embarrassed.
Aged nine then, even had I explained my position, I would
have only been thrashed, probably for back-answering. And I was never
naughty, least of all at School (I know some of you finding it hard to digest
it). When I give a nostalgic rewind,
apart from discarding the NV’s understanding of the whole issue as ignorance, I
wish to know: Is it wrong to play the
National Anthem in musical version? It
is pleasant to hear the Anthem even on Guitar.
Is vocal rendition mandatory?
Playing of the National Anthem by way of musical instrument is not an
offence. The Indian Armed Forces Band
have performed the Anthem in official musical version.
All said and done, you are my teacher, nay, Sir. Teachers are role-models. I believe so. To be so, it is a huge responsibility There are no doctors, engineers, architects ...... without teachers. There is more to teaching than just impart the lessons of the curriculum, and the gap between a teacher and an educator is really, really massive. We can't do away without teachers. The best way to test is abolish education and see what happens in the next 10 years.
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires". - William Arthur Ward, Author
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh26zOjIh9I
