Priceless way of gathering attention

ONE WHO enters the classroom as a teacher has to have a variety of abilities. Chief of them is the art of story-telling. In olden days when India had the luxury of a joint family system there were always one or two old persons who enjoyed telling stories. And there never was any dearth of a set of children for audience. Even the poorest households that could ill-afford a single story book had children who effortlessly stored in their memory, vast amounts of traditional lore.

Studying individual story tellers in the joint families of those days can be fascinating, for, this story-telling is a traditional skill that can be put to good use in the modern classroom. Going around asking some men and women who are all past 60, their remembrances of the great Tamil writer Kumudini (for writing a biographical monograph) who was also an adored member of a joint family, gave me an understanding of the wonderful bonds that were forged by the joint family system.

Around 13 children had the benefit of listening to Kumudini (mother/aunt) when their ages ranged from five to 15 and they all lived in a semi-rural town. More than half a Century later these sons/ daughters/ nephews/ nieces recall with pleasure those evenings far away and long ago. What they said could very well serve as a lesson to teacher-trainees to gain the affection, admiration and gratitude of classroom children.

* Kumudini alternated Indian and foreign themes. It could be Harishchandra for two days to be followed by the Tempest of Shakespeare.

* The story was never completed on the day it began. Just when the children were absorbed watching in their mind's eye, Oliver Twist asking for another helping of gruel or Hanuman being gobbled up by Simhika, Kumudini would get up saying. ``rest of it tomorrow!'' Neither cajoling nor tantrums could make her change her mind and give out the ending.

* The moral was implied and never stated sharply, lest it acquired a classroom flavour. Apparently, Kumudini knew very well that commands do not work when dealing with the minds about to blossom and would soon be spreading their petals. For instance, the children were sent away after the story of the monkeys tearing up the nest of the sparrow was completed. They were not told in a moral-spewing voice: ``Children, now do you understand? Do not tender unsought-for advice as the well-intentioned sparrow did''. But the children's imagination worked in the unconscious and they realised that the sparrow should have kept its distance from the short-tempered monkeys who quarrelled constantly. Certainly the story helped them keep their distance from boys and girls who kept fighting at the slightest provocation in school or in the playground.

* Short poems were introduced during these story-telling hours. Snatches of such songs were remembered half a Century later! ``Pattabhiraamaa, do you have no brains? Should you go and trouble your granny? (Pattabhiraamaa buddhi illaiyaa? Paattiyai neeyum Paduthalaamaa? Kumudini changed her intonation to suit the characters in her story. The lilting poems kept going round in the minds of the children. As a consequence, the story was never forgotten.

* She preferred telling the tales in the mother-tongue. In her case, Tamil was the language. Since she knew Sanskrit and English, she used words in these languages occasionally and even quizzed the children on the exact meaning of the words. There was enthusiastic competition to provide the answer first. Thus, unconsciously, the children gained an ability to relate the same concepts to different sound patterns.

* She did not avoid stories dealing with Kings and Queens but gave a welcome mix of modern stories too. Hans Christian Anderson's Tales and Alice in Wonderland were favourites. She even dared to give the entire story-line of major novels like Ivanhoe and Kenilworth and was perhaps assisted by the Tamil versions of Arani Kuppuswamy Mudaliar that were the rage then. Often she branched out to real lives: the inspirational careers of Shivaji, Rana Pratap or Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi. Being a Gandhian, Mahatma Gandhi's career as it progressed in the 1930s and 1940s was made a living reality to the children.

Story-telling is thus a priceless way of gathering the attention of children. An Indian teacher is particularly lucky, thanks to the Panchatantra, the Hitopadesa, the Vetala Panchavimsati, the stories of Maryada Rama, Tenali Rama and Appaji. And in our own times, Sri Ramakrishna and Sister Nivedita. To conclude with a tale told by Sri Ramakrishna that makes excellent core-material for dramatic expansion to a class of 8-15 years old:

``Let met tell you a story. A man used to celebrate the Durga Puja at his house with great pomp. Goats were sacrificed from sunrise to sunset. But after a few years, the sacrifice was not so imposing. Then some one said to him: ``How is it, sir, that the sacrifice at your place has become such a tame affair?'' * Don't you see? he said, My teeth are gone now.* ''.

PREMA NANDAKUMAR

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