Knives Out: Connecting to the Dots to a Perfect Crime

  

 

Knives Out directed by Rian Johnson is a whodunnit featuring an ensemble cast of Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, and many more. Daniel Craig plays the role of a private detective Benoit Blanc who was hired by an anonymous person to look into the murder of noted crime fiction author and billionaire Harlan Thrombey. The family members and the police prima facie conclude it to be a suicide as Harlan had a knife in his hand which leads to the assumption that he had slit his throat.  Initial investigations by the police also showed that the pattern of the blood flow was uninterrupted with a smooth cut which was probably because he slit his throat himself and there was no resistance. However, Blanc thinks otherwise. As he interviews all the family members, Harlan’s nurse Marta and the maid, he realizes that there is more to the story. Every suspect seems to have an ulterior motive. But they are not directly connected to the murder. On the fateful night which also happens to be Harlan’s 85^th birthday, almost all key members of the family have had an argument with him regarding the will. A few days before his birthday, Harlan has a talk with some of them regarding their suspicious activities. He realizes that his family does not love him but is only eyeing his assets. He confides in to his nurse Marta Cabrera who is his only close friend. After the party, Marta takes Harlan to his room where they play a board game. After this, she gives him his daily medicine. However, she thinks she has given him the wrong drug. Marta tells him that he might die of drug overdose. As she calls the ambulance, Harlan stops her from doing it. He tells her that it wouldn’t be of any use. In order to not get convicted for his death, He gives her a detailed set of instructions on how to portray his death as a suicide. After she leaves the room reluctantly, Harlan slits his throat. After the funeral, they move on to the will reading. To their shock, they realize that Harlan has left his entire property, his company and all his money to Marta. This leads to utter chaos. Marta is quickly taken away from there by Ransom, the youngest son of Harlan and she tells him everything. In the end, in an unexpected turn of events, Blanc finds out that it is Ransom, the spoilt son of Harlan who killed Harlan. Ransom had switched the drugs before Marta came into the room with Harlan. However, she had given him the correct drugs noticing a change in the fluids. It is proved that Harlan did commit suicide.  Ransom had hired Blanc. He planned to implicate Marta and then inherit the entire property. Blanc exposes Ransom and frees Marta of her guilt.

The movie revolves around the members of Harlan Thrombey’s dysfunctional family. Walt runs the publishing house and Linda; a successful businesswoman is his daughter. Her husband Richard cheats on her which Harlan finds out and threatens to tell Linda. He also has a daughter-in-law Joni who is a social media influencer and secretly siphons off money from him under the pretext of paying her daughter Meg’s college fee. Wanetta is Harlan’s mother who later becomes the key evidence in proving Marta’s innocence. Benoit Blanc is supported in his investigation by officers Lt. Elliot and Trooper Wagner.

 Every dialogue in the movie leads to another crucial evidence. The cast has done a commendable job of acting out the lines in a manner which makes the audience suspect all of them. Blanc as the eccentric private eye deduces the real culprit by tracing back to his conversations with the family members. Ransom is the only person he has spoken to the least. Yet he fishes out clues by connecting what others say about him. These are some of those lines which act as a precursor to what happens next:

“…what you and Harlan did that fateful night seems at first glance to fill that hole perfectly. A donut’s hole in the donut’s hole. But we must look a little closer. We see that the donut hole has a centre in it. It is not a donut hole at all. But with a smaller donut with its own hole.”

 

This points to the fact that it was Ransom who is responsible for the murder and not Marta. Marta had in fact saved Harlan’s life. In the initial part, Lt. Elliot tells Blanc that it was a suicide pointing to the physical evidence. Blanc replies, “Physical evidence can tell a clear story with a forked tongue. Material clues can also lie or tell little about the story unless it is connected to other unseen clues. In another scene, Blanc raises his thoughts on the complex nature of the case saying: “But the complexity and the gray lie not in the truth but what you do with the truth once you have it.” He sums up the essence of the movie saying that the case is not a mere logical connection of facts to deduce the truth but is an intricate web of events leading to the murder. 

‘Knives Out’ is a whodunit. But I think this would be trivialising this masterpiece. It contains all the aspects of a murder mystery. Raymond Chandler describes the character in a mystery as “largely uninhibited many of whom are two jumps ahead of the police” The Thrombey family put up a façade of being wealthy and successful. It is only when they realize they have been cut out of the will they become their true selves. They constantly remind Marta of their gratitude for Marta. Marta’s mother is an undocumented immigrant and she fears that her mother will be deported. They praise immigrants and their contributions for the country. They put up an act of benevolence towards Marta similar to how a dominant power would look down on the oppressed classes rather than seeing them as equals. The movie examines the power structures in the society and ridicules the snobbery of the elite. It also satisfies the Dramatica theory of Speculation and Projection. “Speculation leads a character to expect the unlikely in the event that it actually occurs. Projection is a means of anticipating events and situations by extending the line of how things have been happening into the future” (Dramatica). Marta tries to hide parts of her story speculating on what might happen in the future. It is only when she projects the truth assuming that it will cause her arrest that leads to the real truth from Ransom. Speculation keeps the audience on tenterhooks and the more it lasts, the greater the excitement. It is through projection that everything is resolved.

The film fits into the category of a mystery as one that is detached. “The murder novel has a depressing way of minding its own business, solving its own problems and answering its own questions” Benoit Blanc not only solves the case but also redeems her of her guilt and poverty. He then goes on to solve his next case. In the end, Marta emerges as the sole character inheriting Harlan’s assets relieving herself of her struggles as an immigrant in America.

An Eight-year old's encounter with Enid Blyton and Brer Rabbit

Stories have been a part of my childhood from a very young age. From the prescribed rhymes and short stories that were part of the syllabus, my reading list expanded through the regular visits to the neighbourhood library. My memories of the library were not only the books I read,

but the journey itself. Walking through the quiet neighbourhood lined with giant trees on both sides that formed a canopy and the faint chirping of the sparrows and mynahs was the best part of the experience. The library nestled amidst the trees and the long spiral staircase that gave me the chills every time I had to climb it. But I didn’t mind it in the least. The end result -the vast array of books that lie in wait for me was more than enough to encourage me. I never had the chance to listen to the stories of my grandparents. But my mother made sure that I got a generous dose of books to read. It was these visits to the library where I would meet my 

very first friends – Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl, Richmal Crompton and Judy Blume. The stories they wrote belonged to a different time period. They belonged to a different cultural landscape. Enid Blyton’s stories take place in an English countryside where children solved mysteries and went on adventures, or in an elite British boarding school where girls played lacrosse and learnt horse-riding.

In the Faraway Tree series, the Enchanted Woods stories takes the reader to a fairy tale world of pixies and goblins, talking trees and animals. The protagonists, Jo Beth and Fannie discover a tree called the Magic Faraway Tree which takes them to strange, exciting 
places. They travel to the land of goblins, and wizards, the land of birthdays and in one instance they meet Goldilocks and the three Bears. In Enid Blyton’s version, Goldilocks lives with the bears in the same cottage which she first entered. Another important aspect of all Enid Blyton stories is the vivid imagery of food. In all the books I have read, I have not seen any author who described food the way she did. In most of her stories, food is an important prop for the plotline. Whether the characters are setting out to solve a mystery or having a midnight party, delicious food was in plenty:

  “She brought out a tin of Pop Cakes, which were lovely. As soon as you bit into them, they went pop! and you suddenly found your mouth filled with new honey from the middle of the   little cakes.”  

 

      In her stories, she not only describes pastries which every child would love, she vividly          depicts the food children would have for a picnic. This was not the usual sandwiches and      chips which one would expect but healthy food items such as radishes, lettuce, baked beans and hard-boiled eggs. I did not realize that lettuce was equivalent to cabbage or hard-boiled

eggs were just the normal eggs I had for breakfast. I learnt new words like larder, treacle pudding and ginger beer. Food was never a forgettable aspect in Enid Blyton. It played an equal role to the characters in her stories. Folk tales, songs and stories told by your grandparents are in the oral form. I did not get to listen to stories where I could sit in rapt attention and listen to a story where every sound, every word rises and falls with the expression and the intonations given by the storyteller. This is where I turned to folktale collections. Although it cannot replace the awe and excitement one feels while listening to a story, it was the one thing I had. It was through these books that I was introduced to Tenali Raman and Birbal;

Jataka Tales and the Panchatantra; Anansi the spider and Brer Rabbit. They described human follies and dilemmas in a way a child understands. Every character portrays human traits of greed, envy, stupidity, contempt, pride and kindness, contentment, happiness, wisdom, wit and intelligence. Folktales act as a mirror to the society where people see themselves being portrayed. It was through numerous folktale collections that I became aware of other cultures also. This

would not have been

possible in the oral form. Oral traditions would be concentrated on transmitting a part of one’s own culture or something that was part of ones’ culture but became obsolete over the years. The print expanded the reach of folk tales to a larger audience. As Ramanujan mentions, it led to the democratisation of literature. Along with this, translation helped bridge barriers of language and dialects in folk literature. We have folk tales from different communities, states and countries today. I would not have read the stories of Anansi the spider or Brer Rabbit, the two famed tricksters in folk literature if it wasn’t for this advancement in technology. Both of these were the most memorable characters I have read in the folk traditions. Anansi is a predominant character in Caribbean folk tales. The protagonist is a trouble-maker but is also clever and knows to put his wits to good use. This mythical hero appears in the form of a spider and tricks people. He is also known as the King of Stories. In one of the stories, Anansi asks his father Nyame, (Sky) to open the box of stories he kept with him. His father agrees to it only if Anansi performs certain tasks. Through his wits and ingenious problem-solving skills, Anansi completes the tasks and Nyame agrees to release the stories to the world:

“The people had no stories to tell because his father Nyame was hoarding them in a box. Anansi set about a plan to take them from his father…. Nyame told his son that if he could bring four creatures to him, he would trade Anansi the stories for them.”

Brer Rabbit stories has its origins in African-American folk tales. However, the protagonist is less empowered than Anansi. Oral traditions and children’s literature are a record of people’s past, a reflection on our present follies and acts as a reminder to rectify our mistakes in the future.
 

      

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

 

William Shakespeare is the greatest dramatist of all time in the history of English literature. He lived during the Elizabethan Era and earned praise and glory for his plays, known for their intense storylines, filled with passion, guilt, romance and terror which captivated the audience and continue to do so to this day. For a person who isn’t a voracious reader may not understand the language, theme and the setting of his works. But when we dig deeper, we realize that he presented the life of humans in all their vices and virtues. He never wanted to give a moral lesson to his readers through his works.

Nature of Shakespeare’s Plays

Unlike other playwrights of his time who used to deliver a message to the audience through their plays, William Shakespeare showed life in all its natural beauty. It had all the human emotions in its most passionate form. There was love, passion, betrayal, ambition, strength, resilience and so on.  His plays also used visual effects to depict terror and supernatural occurrences. The play Romeo and Juliet is an example of Shakespeare’s brilliant use of these dramatic techniques.

A brief introduction to the author

 William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon on 26^th April 1564, although the exact date of his birth is unknown.  His father was a notable figure in Stratford and it is believed that he was educated at Stratford Grammar School. At the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years older than himself. In 1585, he left Stratford for London. He soon became a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company, (known after the accession of James I, as the King’s Men). His first completely original play is believed to be Love’s Labour Lost. His non-dramatic works consist of two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece (1594).  Most of his plays were written for performance in public playhouses.

His plays can be divided into three groups – comedies, tragedies, and histories. The play Romeo and Juliet’ belongs to tragedy. It was Shakespeare’s first masterpiece. Though we don’t know its exact date, it is said to have been between 1592 and 1595.

Source of the plot

 Italy was the breeding ground for many great writers and had been a source of material for writers in England. Shakespeare set many of his plays in Italy. Romeo and Juliet is based on Arthur Brooke’s poem The Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet, an Italian story which Brooke found in a French translation. But, this is only a guess. However, Shakespeare was not an original playwright. He adapted many of the well-known stories of the day, which only seem ‘Shakespearean’ to us as the other works are not so popular compared to Shakespeare’s own version.

         

About the play

  Romeo and Juliet are famous as lovers the world over, and isa primarily a play about love. The theme of Romeo and Juliet is a live filled with passion. It is a story of hatred overcome by that love, old hate versus young love, taking no thought for the past and the future. And this love ends in death, thus heightening the intensity. It is an example of true love, and the balcony scenes with the lines:

                  ‘How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,

                    Like softest music to attending ears’

prove Shakespeare’s skill in wordplay. The depth of their love is clearly indicated through these lines. The atmosphere is one of passion and swiftness.  It is ideal love and we are made aware of its nature by the way in which Shakespeare differentiates it from other kinds of love so that his audience can examine relationships and further deepen their understanding of the trove between Romeo and Juliet. The play emphasizes on themes like love and hate, old and young, order and disorder

Compression of Time

The whole play is in a hurry. It is a play full of angry fights, intense passion and sudden

death. Shakespeare compresses the nine months’ action of Brooke’s poem into less than five days, in the interests of swiftness, power and unity of action. On Sunday, the play opens with a street fight. Romeo and Juliet first meet at a party the same night. After the party, Romeo gets into Capulets’ garden and from the ground talks to Juliet talks to Juliet at the window.

Monday: they are married in the afternoon. Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished, but he spends the night with Juliet. That night, Capulet arranges Juliet’s marriage with Paris for Thursday morning.

Tuesday: Romeo leaves Juliet. Juliet is told by her parents that she has to marry Paris. She then goes to Friar Lawrence. The wedding is postponed to the next morning. Before she goes to sleep, she takes the potion given to her by the Friar. On Wednesday, Juliet is discovered ‘dead’ and is taken to the family tomb. On Thursday, Romeo hears of Juliet’s death and buys poison. On Friday, in the early morning, he comes to the tomb. The rest of the play takes place before dawn.                                         

However, the play is not so swift. Juliet tells Romeo that their love is ‘too rash, too sudden’. When they next meet, the audience is given the impression that they are meeting after a long time. But it has only been a matter of hours. She has known him for only a couple of days. But the audience feels that they have been together for a long time. In fact, it is purely love at first sight.

Setting

A great number of Shakespeare’s plays are set in places abroad. But the play’s story is set in England. Nowadays, there is strict demand for accuracy in scenery, costumes, and the setting but back then, the life and spirit of a play mattered more than the place where it was staged.  People saw in the play their own life and experience.  Shakespeare’s audiences enjoyed blood and battle stuff and he tried to satisfy them. Like any other dramatist, he wanted people to spread the word that Romeo and Juliet was an exciting play. The play is written in a way that could please them. From the opening scene of a street fight to the duel, murder, and suicide in the last, the play captivated the audience.

Qualities of the two main characters: Romeo and Juliet

Romeo: Before the start of the play, Romeo has been moody and reserved. The lady whom he says he loves won’t love him back. At the time the play opens he goes out at night and locks himself up all day. This love is just an infatuation. It is not genuine. It was only when he met Juliet, he discovered true love.

Romeo enjoys exaggerating his problems. But when he is really in love, he keeps it to himself. He becomes a dreamer. The fact that his companions make so much of his changed humour shows that he must have been a jolly fellow in the earlier days. He was a charming young man, with lots of friends.  When love gets to his heart, life is real.

Juliet: When we first meet Juliet, she is a charming, timid person, an obedient daughter. She has lived a sheltered life, but when she falls in love she becomes brave and passionate. She has a strong mind, willing to stand up against her parents’ wishes. She falls in love with Romeo at first sight. But she is more practical than him.  Juliet loves Romeo deeply, but her feet are on the ground. It can be said that Juliet was selfish giving her family great worry in order to carry her own whims and fancies. But she loved her father and mother truly and her parents on the other hand, were forcing her to marry a person against her wishes.

Conclusion

There are different aspects of love in the play. There is the passionate love between Romeo and Juliet. There is the love between parents and children. The love in the Capulet family indicates to this love. The problem of law and order is also shown through the quarrel between the Capulets and the Montagues. On the whole, however it is the story of true love that can go beyond mere family feuds. Here, it is Romeo and Juliet who teach the elders in the play the meaning of true love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Paris to Delhi: The Making of a Revolution

                                                         

 May 1968. A fresh wave of protests erupted in Sorbonne University (then University of Paris) one of the elite universities in France. The students had gathered in the amphitheatre of the university to voice their resentment against a government whose

policies had led to widespread class discrimination ant kept nearly three-fourth of French

youth unemployed. It was a movement inspired by the free speech declaration and the counter-culture movement in the US during the 1960s. However, unlike the anti-war protests in America, the Paris uprising dealt with issues closer to home. Rather than a political movement, it was more of a social revolution as it brought together people who belonged to all walks of life.  It was a rare blend of the university graduates, shopkeepers, factory workers, clerks and many more. Although they faced distinct issues, they came together to form a coalition of diverse groups with a single objective. A student movement soon turned into a social uprising that challenged the existing power structures and brought the French economy to a standstill. The recent decision to celebrate the 50^th anniversary signifies the crucial role it played in restoring French democracy.    

   A student-driven movement

In the current scenario where student politics is being chased out from college campuses, shutting out any room for dissent, the 1968 French uprising has a great bearing on student life in India. French president Charles de Gaulle commented that conservative policies and an outdated academic curriculum meant a scarcity of employment opportunities for the common people. In addition, workers’ issues of long working hours and low wages combined to form an umbrella movement and gave a platform for the creative expression of public opinion. Dissent was expressed in the form of graffiti on walls and buildings. The slogan It is forbidden to forbid ( Ilest interdit d’interdire) was a reminder that civil rights were a citizen’s most valued asset. The protests posed a law and order situation in many parts of the city. However, it didn’t turn into a civil war as the government feared. The numerous strikes in factories and colleges signified the turbulent atmosphere of the period. It forced authorities to pay heed to the fears and anxieties of the people.

A new wave of communism

The Marxian ideology found its rightful place in the protests of May 1968. Before the uprising, the communists had already gained a stronghold over the French Parliament forming the far-Left bloc in France. Trade unions were seen as representatives of the working class and all was well – or so it seemed. It took an entire nation’s citizenry to show the real picture.                                                       

Where some are more equal than others

As far as French youth were concerned, true socialism was a thing of the past. Through the years, the Marxist ideology had been manipulated and tailored to suit the needs of a few.

Trade unions allowed little room for dissent. Majority opinions always prevailed. Moreover, the leaders of these trade unions were highly influential people, many of whom had direct contact with the members in the Parliament. Thus, a noble idea had fallen into the wrong hands crushing its very spirit. In a nation with acute class discrimination, where an unseen line divided the haves and the have-nots, the period from May 2 1968- June 23, 1968 was a new beginning. Every section of French society – workers, students, activists, women and minorities rallied around a common objective. Their slogan ‘All power to the imagination’ even attracted students from foreign universities who came in to support the cause. It shaped a generation of youth driven by a thirst for freedom. 

Student protests and the emergency

The Paris uprising had nothing similar to the student protests in India, but it had many common features with the Emergency. One reason was that the movement in France derived a formula which could be put to use for student-led political movements in India. The period during the Emergency provided perfect ground to practice this formula. In fact, the Emergency was one major cause for the rise of student politics in India. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s style of governance was considered authoritarian. Her decision to suspend the Constitution and assume all power proved to be the last straw. Strikes, lockdowns and hartals were common occurrences during this period. Many politicians and student activists were arrested. Those who escaped were forced into hiding. The student movement in France and the Emergency in India were more or less cast in the same mould. Both had a great impact on individual psyche and both ultimately restored true democracy to their countries.

Lessons to learn

Youth today have a lot to learn from the 1968 uprising. When self-styled patriots attempt to silence critics and writers and intellectuals in India are being targeted by vigilante groups for holding critical views of the government, it would and must remind us of the need to uphold one of the basic tenets of our constitution.

So what if I'm not fair

For a typical Indian family, marriages are the one occasion to which every member of the family looks forward to. It starts from the day when the boy’s mother starts lamenting about how the household chores has been increasing day by day and asks the boy’s father to find a suitable girl for their son. At the same time the girl’s father will be running after brokers and giving ads in matrimonials to find a prospective groom for their daughter. These days, people don’t need to have much creativity when writing out ads for matrimonials. The only thing which needs to be different is the family background of the bride and the bridegroom and their occupation. But one thing which sure needs to be in common is whether the girl is fair and pretty or whether the boy is fair and handsome. Well, you’ve seen what I meant.

Fairness is one big rage that has caught up with every Indian, especially an Indian. The booming cosmetic industry and the variety of Ayurvedic treatments that we seek help from are two major examples of the common man’s race to embrace modernity without ignoring the past. Cosmetic creams and talcum powders have turned out to become huge money spinners. No wonder such products flourish in the market. Commercial advertisements that endorse such products churn out notions that can develop stereotypes in the society. They say that if you’re not fair-skinned, you aren’t going to be successful in life. The way they make us believe that you can be fair in one day by just applying the cream clearly makes it evident that the whole thing was just a farce. But here too, the same Indian attitude of cashing in on the latest new fad repeats itself.

Even when we still haven’t solved the dilemma of dealing with prejudice and discrimination based on race and colour, the media further instills the ideology that if you aren’t fair, you aren’t beautiful. We go hammer and tongs when our fellow Indians are being mistreated in other countries. But when they are being ill-treated in the same Indian soil, we feel that sometimes, rules can be altered.

When one part of the media builds prejudices, some have tried to ward off these misgivings.  The prominent jewellery brand of India, Tanishq created an ad which raises social awareness on remarriage. It features a dusky young bride who is getting ready for her wedding. During the ceremony, her daughter signals to those seated next to her that she wants to join the couple. Her mother who is the bride hushes her up and continues with the ceremonial rites. Sensing the girl’s disappointment, the groom lifts her up and the three continue to make their rounds around the sacred fire. This heartwarming video soon went viral on YouTube.

This isn’t a grave issue among the vast other problems that we are drowned in. But in a way, it needs to be taken seriously. Mark Twain, the wittiest writer of all time once said, “The finest clothing made is a person’s own skin, but of course society demands more than this.” Touché!

 

  

Monsoon's Sly Companion

                           
The monsoons have arrived and so has our dear mosquito. I can write long poems on rain. Even a six-year old child can do that. The pitter-patter of raindrops, those lovely puddles that we love to jump into, and the fragrance of wet mud….the child in me is dying to be poetic. Unfortunately, I cannot. An eighteen-year old with all the practical knowledge she has gained over the years, whose textbooks have taught her that rain is caused due to the evaporation and condensation of air cannot cling on to her childhood fantasies. Hence, she gradually shifts focus to something ubiquitous, but extremely important.

It’s nearly 6:00pm and the sun is still reluctant to go away. Meanwhile, our most unwelcome guests have arrived and the whole neighbourhood is all prepared to shut the doors on them even before they come knocking on the door.‘Athithi Devo Bhavah’ doesn’t work out here. But friends don’t need a special invitation, do they?

One small mosquito bite shall inspire you to fight till your last breath. We Indians are not very much into the game of tennis but mosquitos encourage us to indulge in this ‘sport’. Losing in your home ground is a bit humiliating. The mosquitos are aware of this. So they voluntarily decide to undergo the electric shock. Most often they end up sacrificing their lives. (A moment of silence)

Sleepless nights would have been an unknown thing if it weren’t for them. A doctor is required only so long as there are patients to be treated. My dear mosquito repellants and liquid vaporizers, understand the truth that necessity is the mother of invention. You wouldn’t have been invented if they weren’t foolish enough to barge into rooms filled with you odour. You make us feel drowsy enough so that we lapse into a deep sleep. But they come to our rescue and sound the bugle in our ears just so that we aren’t poisoned to death.

  Like I said before, mosquitos awaken us from deep slumbers. My mother woke up a few minutes ago to see me writing paeans for an insignificant creature.  There are big red marks all over her face and she is planning to wield the racquet once again.  I only hope that a deuce is possible. Then, there won’t be any hard feelings.

I was burning the midnight oil unable to keep my eyes open, let alone study. That was when you bit me on my hand and I discovered my lost creativity. Thanks buddy for being such an inspiration to me.

A Classroom and some fleeting memories

 
Having studied in a co-ed school from kindergarten to high school, never in my wildest dreams did I think that one day I would join a girl’s school. The broiler chicken in me waned off over time after I moved to Kerala from Chennai. Chennai was my first home and indeed it was a painful departure. But neither was it the Partition nor the Stone Age that you could never see your friends ever again. So I slowly tuned in to my new settings.

My learning process spanned over three educational systems. All of them have one thing in common --- academic bulimia, where you simply throw up whatever you learn from textbooks. However, you can’t blame the schools because our modern education system is hell-bent on teaching us that way. But apart from this, one thing that makes life after high school exceptional is the natural ease that comes along with the academic bulimia.

Normally, an average class is a mix of the class clowns and pranksters, nerds and all-rounders—more like mixed vegetable soup. But my class is a blend of just one variety – the naughty ones and the multi- faceted characters. Of this, the naughty ones make up an overwhelming majority—an extremely spicy dish where chilly was the main ingredient. I still wonder how Ceema Miss even managed to stand between us.

 Humanities is a pretty dull subject to opt for. If a story of kings and queen could be made so vibrant with Mini Miss’ unpredictable jokes, we realized that politics was not just a story on Indian elections. It was also about Shiny Miss who never once suspected us of all the mischief we’ve done in her class. Then comes Gisha Miss who is also a child like us—a child who can be both naughty and nice. English wouldn’t have been fun if we didn’t get to listen to our Jilsy Miss find herself at a loss for words to speak Malayalam—a language that had cast a spell on her tongue.  When it comes to our Malayalam teacher, she is what the name suggests, literally. Seena Miss can be a Malayalam dictionary when she wants to.

Forgive me if I’m getting carried away. But I’ll feel myself guilty if I don’t write on our Economics teachers --- Ceema Miss and Sr. Annjose. If one was the innocent wide-eyed pussycat, the other was its stoic-faced mother, and a person who cracked jokes like normally.

In this rat race called life, it is these uncommon characters that splashed colour to my otherwise dull canvas. If my previous school dug out the writer in me, Sacred Heart’s  unearthed the woman of substance buried inside me.