By Samarendra Nath Shah Deo, Department of History
What’s the conundrum? None at all but the tech savvy aficionados are finding that the very gadgets which till now had made netizens record everything at the touch of a button at their fingertips, now are faced with the crux to go on making numerous PowerPoint presentations. The teachers were eating, sleeping, living, thinking, breathing, dreaming and making PowerPoint presentations with a hitherto untapped flair. The teaching fraternity of our school was staring down the barrel of online classes. To use the oft repeated phrase “nothing endures but change” the teachers scaled the hurdle with a flair which had many bite their nails, hold their breath and voila! The first PowerPoint was ready on the assembly line! It is as the phrase goes ‘been there, done that’. We were on cloud nine!
The teachers had been teaching to enthuse the students to motivate them to strive harder. Now they themselves were being tested to apply the same. Tables do turn after all and in what way! Of course, there were endless brainstorming sessions with everyone running helter skelter with their mobiles, earphones, checking their data pack and ‘troubleshooting’ became like a quick sharp draw read in the western novels and at the end everyone was a winner! Unbelievable, but True! Though there was no Russian roulette being doled out neither was anyone outgunned, yet all the teachers were winners.
Teachers heard plaintive from the members of their family that they were virtually into PowerPoint presentations and might even be dreaming about them! Well, this was new age jargon WFH – Work From Home with Wifi or data pack in the As You Like It mould. The die had been cast and even a Merlyn could not break the spell. However, the teaching fraternity not to be outdone surmounted the challenge with aplomb because we always teach that ‘learning’ is the ‘process’ and the ‘process’ is more important than the result. However, ‘means’ must not necessarily justify the ‘ends’. Integrity, Commitment and Being Truthful are the time tested topazes, which come to the fore when we shift gears for success!
The school campus was an ideal source of motivation as the green sentinels came up with different hues of green, difficult to describe and vying for attention with the likes of the Siris, Neem, Pipal, Bargad, Bakul, Teak, Karanj, Ber, Bael, Guler, Reetha and more swayed in the rain soaked atmosphere. As I walked around the cricket field, I came across a pair of Golden Orioles, whistling their high pitched melodious real time tweets and the prodigious Indian Roller (Neelkanth) could be seen as it went about and heard its inimitable staccato. I was even lucky to spot a bevy of scaly breasted Munias and had to refer to a birding contact to identify them. And all of this took place in the confines of our campus! Sitting in the veranda, as I made yet another presentation on the exploits of Baji Rao I, an all time swiftest cavalry charger, I was distracted by a pair of strange looking birds. The Indian Grey Hornbills, who till some time back were migratory, have made us proud by becoming the residents of the campus and are followed everywhere by their juvenile! We are blessed to have the spotted owlets, who reside in the hollows of old Siris trees, and have to ensure that these rugged trees are a part of the living heritage, should not be felled, at any cost. There happens to be a Mulberry Tree on the campus, which has is still remembered by the students of the 60’s. No wonder they are dubbed as green sentinels! But I have saved the best catch for the last – the Jungle Owlet has graced our campus since the month of May, when I heard its call for the first time. The help of the birdwatcher friend again came in handy, who was thrilled to hear the recorded audio of the Jungle Owlet. However, the birds probably a pair are both human shy and camera shy too what with everyone fancying themselves as a photographer with a full range of mobile cameras that the real camera has become redundant!
While we were all busy in our day to day life the legend Pandit Jasraj passed away. Readers must listen to his rendition of ‘Mero Allah Meharbani’ which will help us present times to be anchored in reality rather than the virtual world as, Nida Fazli penned, which Jagjit Singh sang ‘soch samajh walon ko thodi nadaani de maula, chidiyon ko daane, bacchon ko gud dhaani de maula.’ Let’s be wise or be otherwise!!