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Taste of a very English Summer
WHEN THEY get together they still talk of that dream journey. The excitement is still very palpable. They then forget the streets overhung with smoke, the snorting steam, piston strokes and jarring horns. They still dream of London and counties like lovely Kent, all white and clean, of the clear Thames bordered by its garden green.
For the 25 children of the Bhavan's Vidya Mandir, Elamakkara, just back from that trip to Cranbrook, south of England, the insight they gleaned is likely to be worth a life's experience. And for the three accompanying teachers, this trip provided a chance to reconfirm all that they had read or seen about this historic country. "This was part of an exchange programme, something that began in 2000. Students and teachers from the Cranbrook School were here this January. Our children hosted them. We took them around to some of the significant tourist and historic spots in Kochi and even Munnar and Thiruvananthapuram. This was followed by this trip," said Ms Meena Viswanathan, principal of the school.
It did not take much time for the bunch of eager, smart group of boys and girls to warm up. And then for nearly an hour it was an avalanche of memories of that trip to Blighty. "The first thing that we noticed was the traffic on the streets of London. There was no slamming of brakes or hooting of horns. The vehicles sailed smoothly. For them sounding the horns seemed quite offensive," said one of the boys. But there was nothing like peeping through the windows of the aircraft as it prepared to touch down. "We saw the Thames, so many bridges, a few castles... " the children chorused.
They had a taste of everything typically `English' right to the famous weather. ``It was sunny when we landed. But since then, till we left, it was cold, windy, grey." Staying with the English families brought them into direct contact with their lifestyle, food habits and culture. "They even tried to cook Indian food for us. It is quite popular there except that it was not as spicy as we get it here. And on day offs,, some of us spent the whole day with our hosts at home, talking, or taking a ride to the nearby malls. We did try to help them with their cooking, even making chocolate cakes for them" said the girls.
The Cranbrook School, everyone agreed, was most impressive. "The facilities there were unbelievable. They have 20 well laid out playfields, apart from five basketball courts, tennis courts and a swimming pool... . They have televisions in every classroom. We also visited a few colleges in the Cambridge University. Now we know where we would love to go after schooling here... ."
The teachers, Ms Jaya Jacob, Ms Jyothi Nair and Ms Mini Ravindran, were quite impressed by the "self-discipline and politeness" of the children there. That was perhaps the only aspect, which they would love to inculcate in their school for there was a vast difference in the method of teaching and the subjects taught. If there was something else which could be tried out here, it is giving more emphasis to extra-curricular activities, like making music and art part of the curriculum.
The children carried gifts to their friends, organised a cultural show, which had a Rajasthani group dance, a few songs and a costume parade depicting various regions of India. "For us they staged `Oklahoma' which was very impressive." Some of them were lucky as their hosts took them out to visit the Madame Tussaud's famous wax museum, while one of the boys got to watch a one-day international cricket match between India and England at The Oval.
Finally when it was time to return all of them felt a lump in their throats. "The flight back home was early in the morning. But the whole family at the place we stayed, this included the old grandmother, were up and ready to see us off," said one of the boys.
"I will pack and take a flight. And get me to England once again," this was the refrain from the 25 lucky children, now pushed back to their daily school grind once again.
K. PRADEEP
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