Re: Baparao Replies on pancama vEdaM
prasad (prasad@grove.ufl.EDU)
Tue, 29 Oct 1996 20:44:52 -0500 (EST)
>
>Friends:
>
>I have seen the following posts from Sree Baparao in SCIT. With his
>consent, I am posting them to telusa.
>
>Regards.
>
>V R Veluri
>I don't know much about poetic technique etc. but I too liked the
>poem. It touched me. Too often our teachers are a cross between DroNa,
>chanDaamarkulu, and cilakamarti vaari gaNapati. Everyone catches the
>brunt of their poor choice of profession but I am sure the "lower"
>castes catch it worse. The young need encouragement to flourish, not
>abuse.
>
>My personal views.
>
>Bapa Rao
This is a very valid observation. Many of the teachers I know had subtle
and often not-so-subtle attitudes in their interaction with the
under-previleged students. I remember a classmate, who happened to be the
son of a barber, who was the target of our Telugu teacher (who incidentally
was not from what are called the upper castes). He was a good scholar and
teacher, but the way he ridiculed some students was uncivil. He used to
make this boy stand up in the class and tell him you will have to go back to
your 'ayya's barber shop if you don't do well this year and so on, in very
rustic terms.
Our teacher was perhaps not conciously malicious - on other occassions he
would be kind to many students- but he is but one example of the attitudes
of our institutions toward such children. The converse also is true. Boys
and girls of the 'higher ups', such as the CTO, DSP and EE in town, receive
special treatment. This form of abuse is hard on the lower caste children,
as they typically are poor also.
I like the theme of Satish Chandra's poem and the skill with which
he had woven it. Poems such as these certainly help open our minds, though
they can not be planned for that purpose.
Kanaka Prasad