Topi! An important yet unnoticed part of our lives. Important,
yes, as you travel through any part of the country (or probably world) you
shall see variety of caps worn by people. Topi, once a symbol of freedom
struggle, a significant cultural tradition, dignity in case of Pagadi, and much
more. Unnoticed, yes, because it has become an integral part of our life that
we do not even necessarily think separately. But a cap is not merely a
head-wear! What can a cap mean to somebody? What blunders can it do? Here is an
interesting story, Topi!
Ramai, the protagonist of the story is a
simple, common man from a small town in Bihar in socialist India. Ramai, who is
searching for a job after he is thrown out of a driver’s job in a company,
finds himself on a driving seat of senior most police officer of the town. As a
matter of accident, he wears the officer's cap which changes his life for that
moment to a great extent. It transforms Ramai into a rather confident, arrogant
and carefree person from a gullible, soft and unfortunate one. Losing his
composition in that momentum, Ramai finds himself in a difficult situation and
gets paid for the crime of wearing and flaunting police officer's cap. Topi, a
familiar word in north India, caught my attention over any other short story on
the rack.
Sanjay Sahay, the author who has written about common man's stories in India during 1960s-70s, holds readers successfully till the end of the story. Sahay, who comes from Bihar, has used a number of narratives depicting British rule’s influence on independent India creating an apparently real picture of that time. Storyline, characters and use of words from Hindi clearly relates to the origin of the author. The jeep, aspirations, uniform are some of the symbols used creatively to set up the time context for the story.
The story begins with a flashback and then advances through a series of interesting ups and downs to reach climax as Ramai reaches the Saari shop. What happens next is unsurprising though. Non-linear plot (flashmob) makes the story interesting at the beginning itself. The central characters - Ramai and Topi are entirely different from each other in nature - one is animate and another is inanimate. But both are equally powerfully carved out by the author. Other supportive characters of DSP (police officer) and Bhalo (the hooligan) are not well rounded but add interesting dimensions to the story. Most importantly, as they contrast Ramai's character, they are the reason Ramai's character gets even higher elevation.
What is most fascinating about this story is that it runs in two parallel strands - first, the obviously visible story of human characters; and second, the metaphorical deep story commenting on the power structures in the society, the symbols of power and aspirations of the people. The metaphor is so powerful that it can be extended even up to class struggle theory (Marx) depicting a continuous conflict between those in advantaged positions and those who are denied privileges of few. Topi, then, doesn't merely remain a Topi, but becomes a symbol of difference between common and ‘special’ classes. Having said that, there was every chance that author could have taken a stance from one side and built the story, but interestingly (and thankfully) author has taken a neutral point of view in the narrations resulting into a balanced story, open for interpretation of the reader.
As Rosenblatt argues, text is merely set of ink blots on paper unless the reader makes meaning out of it drawing from the experiences he/she has, this story also makes sense depending on the interpreter's understanding of the world around. This does not mean to undermine the story and it's aspects as they shape and constrain the meaning making. Group members saw different meanings hidden in the story differently. The literary circle discussions helped me understand several other meanings which I hadn't thought of. One of the group members did not like the story (unlike me) as it was very different from his/her expectations. I, there, agree with Wolf and I quote – “The transaction process between text and reader is active and highly personal. It is an aesthetic experience in which individual reader’s life experiences help to shape textual understandings.”
As mentioned earlier, the story brings in front of your eyes the near to real picture of socialist India (like the one in old movies), this is mainly because of author’s origin. Author has written about people’s lives from his region and time. Hence he succeeds in such effective portrayal. This, as per Wolf
Literary circles provide unique
opportunities to the readers which are difficult to realize in independent
reading or read alouds and I quote Wolf -
“In literature
discussions we stop and dwell in the text for longer periods, and we talk in
more extended ways, expressing our comments and queries as well as listening to
and responding to others’ ideas.” (2004, p. 112)
In both of our literary circle
discussions, we got to engage with text for longer, lead at times and follow at
times, critique the text from different dimensions, extend the conversations,
generate ideas and question each other. Twice it happened during our
discussions that my views changed upside down. Not to mention separately, it
deepened my understanding of the text. Such method of engaging with the text
has a great potential of providing educational opportunities for the readers
enriching their experience of reading and blotting!
Going beyond the literacy domain, I
feel, this pedagogic approach has a great potential in many other subjects, like
Mathematics, Social Sciences etc. In my personal case, this idea of group
approach to reading influenced my field internship research topic to a great
extent which is ‘Small group-work approach to Mathematics teaching-learning’.
As Calkins states, talk is tool of tools in developing oral language and
comprehension, I see this pedagogic approach has enormous potential to create
such spaces for talk, especially for children and has a lot to contribute to Indian
classroom, classroom interactions, classroom cultures and most importantly,
classroom teaching-learning.
And most importantly, what I gained from
this assignment is something much precious than all the things said earlier. I
realized that even I can write my own blog which I wished to start since last
few years. This writing assignment made me realize that it was only my mental
block (& laziness) which was holding me back and helped me remove that
block. Here is the link - aakashchowkase.blogspot.com
Thank you for creating this experience for us and for making me write! Tons of thanks!!
Bibliography
Calkins, L. (2001). The Art of Teaching Reading (Ch. 22:
Elements of a Story). Addison-Wesley.
(2004). Chapter 1 - Critical Perspectives. In S. Wolf,
Interpreting Literature With Children (pp. 9-43). New York: Routledge.
(2004). Chapter 3 - Talking About Literature. In S.
Wolf, Interpreting Literature With Children (pp. 93-130). New York: Routledge.
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