37 - THE POWER OF TEACHERS

TEACHERS AS LEADERS

THE TRANSFORMATIVE EFFECT OF TEACHING ON SOCIETY

Education is the strength that prepares learners for their annual examinations, and also for life.  And it is upto teachers to empower young minds, not only with concepts of language, science and maths, but also with values of human dignity, truth  and fairness.  Most schools advertise the final board results, boast about 100% pass confirmed and how some students score the highest in a particular stream.  So parents strive towards ‘marks’ and pay through the nose, to let their wards join extra classes, so that they can get the ‘highest’ grades.  Learning outcomes based on marks gained, are  easily measured and widely understood. 

In Mumbai, I teach in an ICSE institution, with a co-ed student policy.  Teachers here, as in any co-ed environment, instill empathetic attitudes among students of opposite gender.  Although I teach the primary section, there have been many instances, where I have faced challenges, to sensitize students about each others’  different needs.  Girls are more gentle, compared to boys, who have to be tempered to gentle attitudes during study and play time.  This I strongly believe, will lead to good human beings, better behaved young men and more docile daughters-in-law,  will reduce acts of rape, or road rage and dowry murders.  But why has co-ed education so far, not been successful in reducing such incidents?  In my school, we have special value education periods.  Through the medium of stories, assembly prayers, in house red cross clubs, interact club activities etc,  students get a chance to experience social issues and contribute in a small way to charity.  We observe canteen day and collect funds towards old age homes.  Special days like ‘grandparents’ day’,  parents’ day,  let students and their family form closer bonds.  Such activities involve us teachers, as resource persons, to set up the programmes, organise the activities, which as a teacher, I consider it my duty, as it helps our students to be socially more amicable.  In the words of Benjamin Franklin,  “tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”   Besides, the above activites,  we directly involve the adults that are connected with each student and so a wider spectrum of society is affected in a positive way.  Very often, schools only emphasize on learning subjects like language, history, science, ICT etc and the spiritual side is reduced to a mandatary morning prayer only. 

Successful and famous persons in the world today are in varied categories.  Steve Jobs was rich and philanthropic,  Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was famous and empathetic.  But the good examples are few.  How did that come about?   That others are corrupt, greedy and bereft of values and virtues?  Some where in their growing up years,  there must have been a catalyst that made them so.  As a teacher, I strive to be a catalyst of reform in my school environment,  in little ways, and hope that the future students will recall and be better citizens in our society, as adults.  Even at the primary level, students do face stress.  A divorce, or the prolonged illness of a family member, or some financial problems, or even personal medical emergencies.  In spite of these hurdles,  I, as a teacher, must be intuitive, and allow them to make friends with stress.  Stress has positive shades also.  I empathise and help the student concerned to change his mind about stress and thus allow them to change their body’s response to stress.  Maybe my tactics have been instrumental in preventing so many hopeless and  impromptu suicides.  I help students to face their dreads and so learn to accept failure and also realize that failure is transient and hard work does pay in the long run.  A student who cannot write neatly or faces a spelling block,  is then my muse for the effort that I need to put in to change that positively.  I involve parents and his friends and classmates, in subtle ways, to assure the change.  As a teacher, I want to be effective, and not too pushy.  Mentoring is a very effective way of transforming the teacher and the taught.  My school encourages mentoring to improve grades and behaviour.  I have to be a mentor, or in other words, a surrogate parent.  A student spends 3/4^th of their waking hours with teachers, at school, and so an affectionate relationship develops, when students have unshakable faith in the teacher’s words.  As a teacher, I can make a lasting impression  on the mind of the child, by  reinforcing appropriate values and attitudes.The student confides in the teacher and thus realizes that there is no problem that cannot be surmounted.  This will make them more tolerant adults of our society.

As a teacher, I appreciate and whole heartedly participate in the good practices that our school encourages.  Public speaking is encouraged and debates on current topics are held on special festival days.  India has a rich heritage of intercaste festivals which provide a good platform to bring about communal harmony at the school level too.  In simple handwork activities and displays,  as a teacher, I strive to inculcate sensitivity among students of different communities.  Especially the Social Science topics of neighbourhood and festivals, afford a vast arena to teachers, to let students experience and learn, beyond the book and the curriculum.  If the topic covers the main religions, then I include the minor ones too, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs,   are taught, then I encompass some information about Jews, Parsis, Jains, too.  In some way,  it widens the thinking limits of my class, as they realize the intricacies involved in divergent communities,  and they realize that there are many more possibilities and traditions and that all should be respected.  If a particular trait is ridiculed,  as a teacher, I feel it is my duty to make students empathise and cultivate an inherent respect for the other community rituals too.  I use stories, videos and drama, until I am satisfied that the problem has been resolved.  This I sincerely believe will also inhibit violent attitudes towards other religions and activities.

I strongly believe that society is shaped by the education that young minds receive.  Their future success is not only in good grades, but the good experiences they go through while in school.  So as  educators, we teachers  create positive experiences for our students.  Experiences that will give them necessary lessons for life. Students learn discipline, punctuality, organisational tactics, by getting a chance to use these capabilities at the school level,  by hosting interschool functions, being fair while judging contests etc.   The young generation of India , on whose shoulders the future of the nation rests, must be made to realize  the strengths like truthfulness, self-control, simplicity, humility, perseverance and gratitude.  Theme assemblies and stories, based on these virtues, is bound to impact the minds that are our precious treasures, to mould positively.  In order to produce highly motivated and self driven liaders of tomorrow,  inspiration has to be an integral part of our education.  As St. Mother Teresa had said, “let us do little things in a great way”,  and she set the example herself.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. John Quincy Adam.

This quote best summarizes what teachers who are leaders do, each day. Dealing with children means teachers have immense powers to inspire and make a change. And with great power comes greater responsibility. Today’s society is fast-changing. Children are exposed to all kinds of information at a very young age.

Be it the internet where they can Google and learn things without having to open a text book or watching movies and TV where they can learn about all the news and trends around the world.   Filtering this information and giving direction to children so that they know how to distinguish good from bad,   is what teachers do.

Besides this, they also play a pivotal role in being emotional support for students, some who come from broken families and some who have lost all motivation to  study.    It is these instances that make teachers the agents of change  in students'  lives.

I remember the one time I met my student at a mall. It was not the usual school setting. He wished me and then hid behind his mother. The boy, a polite 6-year-old  child, was also an introvert.  We bid goodbye to each other and he went shopping along with his mother.   I forgot about our meeting and got busy with my chores.

 But a few moments later,  I noticed the same boy, do something remarkable.   He picked up a wafer packet thrown on the shopping mall floor by an older man,  walked up to him and requested him to discard it in a dustbin.   I was amazed at this child’s bravery.    I felt as if all the times I reminded children to ensure that garbage was to be thrown only  in the bin , had worked like a charm on him.

This is just a small anecdote that showcases how teachers can bring about a change in society.

Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai famously said: One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. At a time when the world is facing international threats of intolerance in the form of terror, it is only education that can mould young minds into knowing that peace is the only way forward.

So teachers have  an indispensable role to play in forming future society, and I am so proud to be a cog in the giant machine that moves society and shapes our future world.

 

36 - ACID ATTACKS

It is the sad truth that in India, spurned lovers throw acid on their victims.  The girl suffers for no fault of hers, except that she was pretty enough to arouse the monster man's emotions. Preeti Rasthi died because of an acid attack at Bandra teminus, in 2013.   The current news is that Preeti Rathi's murderer was sentenced to death but he was smiling in the courtroom and even threatened the family with dire consequences when he would be released.  So, he is sure that the higher court will consider his 'youth' and a chance to be 'redeemed' and thus let him face a 'life sentence' instead.  And a life sentence in India amounts to a few years in prison and then release.  Such heinous crimes deserve a heinous punishment.  The culprit should also be made to suffer an acid attack as a punishment.  That would be justice and an impediment for future attackers too.

What riled me most when I watched this news was that his lawyer was a female, and she was condoning his conduct and almost announcing that he was blameless and that the sentence was biased because the victim was a girl?   I sincerely feel that this lawyer should empathise with the victim and her family and should not have even represented the felon. Preeti was only 24 years old, young and pretty and perfectly healthy.  She died because of the attack and now the boy involved gets a sentence after 3 years?  The girl's old father is seeking justice for his daughter.  Why did it take so many years for justice and that too, it will be questioned in a higher court yet.  In such cases, one begins to doubt the judicial system and of course the typical response is that 'justice delayed, is justice denied'.

The latest victim of  a gruesome acid attack is the case of 19 year old Reshma banoo Quereshi.  Two years ago, this daughter of a taxi driver, was attacked with acid by her brother-in-law, when she was only seventeen.  This year, Lakhme fashion week in New York, prepped her up and she was the show-stopper, at the event. 

Laxmi Agarwal was only 15 when she suffered an acid attack by a 32 year old man, who she had refused to marry, in 2005.  She fought for the rights of acid attack victims and even hosted a TV show to enlighten the public about the plight of victims.  In 2014, she found love with a social activist, Alok Dixit and they decided not to marry, but to be in a live in relationship. 

Why does a person resort to such a vicious revenge?  How can you profess love and then want to destroy the person physically like that?  I have personal experience about a couple who were so good together and then there was a rift because of family opposition.  Then the boy resorted to verbal abuse, and physical abuse by throwing things at the girl involved.  Thankfully he only used water and juices to vent his anger and frustration.  He went onto make new relationships and I wonder how he is making the new girl in his life suffer, because certain males have a very bloated ego and they repeat abusive behaviour.  It is a sad story for the girls that have suffered with him because they will never trust a male or believe in love, I'm sure. 

Such attitudes should be changed during formative years by the parents and teachers.  But school education only stresses on marks and not on forming characters.  As a teacher, I have to deal with  quite a few children from abusive parental relationships or broken homes.  Such students do not perform well academically and hardly smile.  It is a challenge that I face daily, to make them passionate about any school activity,  so that it brings a smile on their face. 



 

35 - MUMBAI LOCAL-LIFELINE?

It is commonly referred to as the 'lifeline' of Mumbai city-the local train.  But I beg to differ, in that, I feel that if you travel by the local, then you need a lifeline to survive.

My experiences of the local train network are varied.  I am a bus traveller, but sometimes it is more efficient to travel by the local because they have a fixed time slot and  one can reach the destination of far flung suburbs faster than by bus.  Besides direct buses are not available to far off suburbs and the bus services are not regular.  Trains are regular and reliable.  But.....

The misery of train travel begins at the ticketing window.  Dirty, smelly, scantily clad urchins or a minor beggar, or an old, half paralyzed beggar, are always on one side of the ticketing window, watching you buy your ticket, making you guilty of spending money on yourself.  Their extended palms and rhythmic banging of a begging bowl, puts one off, the anticipation of the journey is now perforated with sadness and remorse, at the state of the individual that one is expected to appease with cash.

Then the rush of boarding the correct train, and hurriedly plonking onto any vacant seat, before none are left vacant with the hoards that ply on the route.  But finding a seat is possible at the starting points of Churchgate, CST or Virar etc.  If you board at any of the intermediate stations, you will never get a seat.  You are lucky if you manage to board the train at all.  There are just too many commuters for the limited trains on the circuits. My colleagues who travel daily from Nallasopara to Mumbai Central, always board the train at four in the morning and that too, the local that is headed backwards, to the starting point of Virar.  Then they continue to sit in the train and head back towards Mumbai Central.  That is the only way they say that it is possible to be in the train at all, because it gets too crowded to be able to board it at all, after that, even at the next stop of Nallasopara.

 I had to travel from Grant  Road station to Santa Cruz, for some administrative work.  Having managed to board the train, I felt relieved, since it was quite crowded.  All the seats were occupied,  fourth seats also.  Women were standing between seats and along the corridor between the seats and holding the above-head handles and standing between the entrances. A torture to breathe in their smelly armpits that were all around my face.   I got a support on the back of the side seats. 

My attention was diverted to some women shouting from the window seats that overlooked the neighbouring stationary train.  Some of them were shouting encouraging words and some were shouting 'nahee'.  As I craned my neck to find out the centre of their attention, I realized that a young boy was being urged by his mother to urinate at the entrance of the neighbouring train and the boy was hesitant.  But soon he overcame his shame on being encouraged by the women from our train too.  'Becharaa,  bhachcha hai.  Susu karne do nah.  Toilet bhi toh nahee stationpar.'  And then our train took off.

Then the train approached Dadar and what a mad rush ensued.  Women pushing their way in and others pushing their way out.  Abuses and screams and  expletives galore.  All the new entrants started asking the seated women where they would alight, and forming mutual bonds for reserving the seats when the present occupants would vacate them.  I was pinched, pressed, pushed and poked, by the women who alighted and the ones who boarded, in huge waves of onslaught. 

What a torture these travellers undergo daily.  For a novice local train traveller like me,  it is traumatic.  And among all the din of the crowd in the overfull bogie,  the background noise of the metal wheels pulling the train towards each station, the background announcements of the approaching stations,  the audio advertisements of Kubal Masale, was repetitively being played, as though all was well and hunky dory within the bogie.

What a relief it was to alight and be free of the confines of the melee.



 

34 - CHATRAPATI SHIVAJI TERMINUS -CST

Mumbai is my 'sasural' and Pune is my 'maher'.  So travel between the two cities is warranted by relationships and circumstances.  The mode of travel can be by train, bus or taxi.  Shivneri bus services are very regular and reliably safe, but I prefer train travel.  And for that I had to go to CST a few days ago.  The beautiful facade of the station is always a pleasure to behold, but what a torture it was to traverse the entire space from the entrance upto the ticket counter and then upto the platform.  The smooth tiles were wet and splippery and I had to walk very very slowly, to avoid falling.

My train arrived after a wait of two whole hours, because I missed the one I had to  board, because of dahi handi traffic snarls, on my way to the station.

Another hour inside the train, and soon the unreserved ladies bogie was overcrowded and crammed.  But it was not too bad, until our train stopped at Dadar and then it was over crammed.  Four persons sharing the seats that are meant for three travellers, others standing between the seats, and yet others sitting in the passage way between seats.

The one visitor that makes the rounds of every train is the well dressed and immaculately made up 'kinnar' or gay man.  Wearing pretty sarees with extremely stylish blouses, these lady-men saunter through the crowds, tapping persons on their heads, heralding their presence with their typical claps and demanding money.  They target the young men, who giggle and donate currency notes happily.  This particular kinnar, had displayed all his booty of cash, very deftly, between the fingers of one hand, while he 'blessed' the commuters with his other hand.

And among all this, the flow of hawkers that kept coming and going a myriad times.  The main commodity was 'paani' thanda paani.  The next was 'chikki' Lonavla chikki, and garam garam vada pav, chai, adrak ki chai, kafee, bournvita, tomato soup, moongfally, gavtee kakdee, omellete pav, cutlet pav.   A very limited choice.   My repeated requests for sugarfree chai were in vain.  The Lonavla chikki sellers were relentless and numerous.  Young men, old men, one blind woman, one blind man, all shouting out for the travellers to buy authentic chikki, at Rs.30 per packet or Rs.100 for four, but when one passenger wanted the 'Maganlal' brand, it would cost Rs80, he was informed. These chikki hawkers walked up and down, almost 20 times, along  the bogies, that had continued access, with walk through connections.  They may be selling off their wares only through the non-stop assault that they vent onto the commuters.

I bought Karjat vada pav and Lonavla jelly sweets, for my family.  The next day, I returned via the train journey, but this time I made friends with two chatty sisters, who were returning after visiting their brother's family for raksha bandhan. 

They shared some prasad with me and also with the monkeys at 'monkey hill' on the way to Mumbai, where the train slows on the ghats.  They bought tea and discarded the thermocole cups through the window.  They ate vada pav and aimed the soiled paper out of the moving train.  They ate bananas and threw the peels out.  They drank Mirinda and water and both the empty bottles were discarded through the moving train, somewhere along the western ghats, along the rail tracks.  But they were not the only ones who threw thrash into the pristine wilderness.  Almost every passenger discarded thrash out of the moving train.  If  ten trains are commuting along the tracks in that area,  just imagine the thrash that is being discarded along its length,  polluting the ghats. 

To top it all, an urchin slides along the passageway, with a rag, half naked and seeming busy and hard at work, cleaning the floor.  Then he returns and looks soulfully at the passengers, with an extended palm,  all this in mime.  Many of the travellers fill his palm with coins.  At CST, there were only 2 to 3 passengers in each bogie, most alighted at Dadar, and then the dirty urchin was walking off with a very lively gait, his pockets jingling with his earnings.  Mentally, I notched his acting talents, at par with SRK.

As the train passes Ulhasnagar, it is the stench that greets us and then the polluted Ulhas river.  It looks lika an open sewage drain, oily, with floating plastic and all sorts of thrash and garbage.  And then the polluted scenario continues.  The land along the tracks is like a garbage landfill.  What a sorry state of the areas.  It is so depressing to watch the littered and stinking slums and shanties that are on view along the route of the train, until it reaches CST.  And then I had to laboriously traverse the wet slippery platform until I exitted onto the road.















 

33 - SELFIE CRAZE

Every four years,  we Indians look forward to our participants winning any medal at the olympics.  But for the rest of the time, no one cares to nurture atheletes.  Of course, there are a few who nurture themselves and are nurtured by a few dedicated coaches.  That is not the way gold medalists thrive.  Talent has to be recognised and rewarded and encouraged.

Today, as I was watching a TV show called 'dance India dance',  the agility and grace of the various participants was so exemplary and of such a high level.  With correct coaching and guidance, any of them could be gymnasts and could win an olympic medal.  A dancer called Tanmay was exceptional. 

Indians will do anything if only they have a goal in sight.  If we want an olympic swimmer, then we should have easily available swimming pools.  Atheletes need to practice running on a track.  I recall, when my children were younger,  they desperately wanted to swim.  The YMCA only allows holiday learning camps for kids,  that too with 'recommendation' through patrons.  Their school would have a lucky draw and limit the wanna be swimmers to a limited number.  The sport's club at Haji Ali wanted one crore for membership and then only one could use their swimming pool.  The Mumbai Gymkhana declared that they had no spots for any more members even if one crore was offered.  The Mafatlal swimming pool at chowpatty is open only for hindus and Jains.  And the public swimming pool at Dadar,  declared that they had a waiting list for the next four years.  The police swimming pool at worli is only for police personnel and their families.   It was  a futile effort.

Salman Khan can share the limelight by announcing a money award for the participants, and Neeta Ambani can get brownie points on the newshour by some sugary comments on the girls who won medals for India.  Can they do some real contribution by promoting sports regularly?  Even Ramdev baba was quoted congratulating the girls who won.  Dear Ramdevji,  open a swimming pool and a track field and other sports courts and then take credit and share the limelight of the winners. The great Amitabh Bachchan also made it a point to share the kudos with his tweet, of wanting a selfie with the girls who won.  Can you do something for others Mr. Big B, like donating  cash towards a good training gymn for girls who want to train?

Until ordinay Indians, with a spark of sportmanship, are not kindled into a strong flame,  India will always remain medal-less at the olympics of the world.

32 - TERESA MY FRIEND

Teresa is a name that belongs to an icon of Kolkota.  Mother Teresa will be canonised on 4th September 2016.  Her maiden name was Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhia,  so complicated to pronounce,  and so she chose a path of service to the poorest of the poor,  a path that is complicated and gruelling.

A few years ago,  I saw a man on the Kemps corner slope,  lying on one side of the road, in the hot afternoon sunlight, and a rat was nibbling  his toes.  It is a very busy road, and thousands of vehicles were driving past.   I assumed that he was dead, until he flickered his eyes.   What could I do?  I could not touch him or even talk to him, because I was so rattled at his state.  I returned home and phoned the BMC, assuming that the municipal authorities would have some sort of rescue tactics in place.  But they replied that,  'we do not pick up sick persons from the road,  we have no provision for such acts.  Please phone "the sisters'  of mercy".
And I phoned them and within an hour,  their van came to the site and carried the sick man away.  In that moment,  my respect for the Christians increased.

Since then,  there have been many occasions, when I have wished that I could have had the compassion and the guts to do what Mother  Teresa did,  to physically and emotionally,  help the poorest of the poor.  But I have befriended another Teresa,  who herself is the poorest of the poor. 

In reality, this Teresa has befriended me.  She lives on the footpath and ekes out a living by collecting, segregating and selling 'radd-deeh'.  All the shops along both sides of the street are her means of procuring  cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, used bubble wrap,  wooden supports etc.
She sweeps a few upper floor homes, in return for leftover food and old clothes.  She washes their toilets and bathrooms, in return for permission to use them when she has to.  But the most laudable thing about this Teresa is that she helps herself and she is always smiling for me.  I am just a woman she meets at the bus stop,  until my bus arrives.  She approaches me whenever she is nearby and strikes up a conversation in perfect English.  Her saree is  a faded, sometimes tattered, hand-me-down,  but she sports nail paint and bangles and a mobile.  The nailpaint is courtesy the nick-nack selling shop that she swabs, and whose garbage bins she clears.  The mobile is an old model that the owner wanted to replace,  from one of the homes she sweeps.

She has no home, and takes shelter on the shop steps, after they are shut.  She has a twenty year old son,  who helps her.   But it is sad that he has no education and no support to learn and earn a respectable livlihood.  He is doing drugs with some other bad elements off the streets. 

Teresa asked me for a favour once,  and I made an effort, to fulfill it, but in vain.   She requested me to help her open a bank account, so that she could save her hard earned money.  But a bank needs an Aadhar card,  and an Aadhar card needs an address, and an address needs a house,  which Teresa does not own.  And so I could not help her to get a bank account.  And the situation has not improved for the poorest of the poor,  no matter what promises our Prime minister Mr.Modi boasts about.  And aslo petty politicians, who being in the vicinity, do nothing to improve the lot of humans around them,,,,, Mr. Owaisi for example.  But then he may wish to only help his own community,  I presume.

But this has not caused any rift in her friendship towards me.  She continues to smile and chitchat with me, as long as I wait for my bus, at this bus stop.


 

31 - COMEDY NIGHTS AND MORE

I enjoy watching 'comedy nights bachao' on the TV, especially since Mr. Krishna entertains us so.  Celebrities are roped in and they bear the jokes that are cracked at their expense, so so very sportingly.  Usha Uthup, singer Altaf Raja, cricketeer Shrishant were the participants today.  All of them very sportingly bore the jokes at their expense.   It is so redeeming at watch famous people be comfortable with comedy.  My connection with Usha Uthup is since my childhood,  when she was the classmate to my cousins at St. Agnes High School, Clare Road, Byculla, Mumbai.    And that was one more incentive for me to enroll my daughter at this school.  I have very carefully preserved a notebook page with the song, Bom Bom Bom Bom Bombay meri hai,  which was written by Ms Usha Uthup herself, when she was studying at St. Agnes.

So, TV programmes sometimes become nostalgic for personal reasons.  Other times, advertisements that are shown, make me very angry and I feel so ineffective,  because although I want to do something about it, and I have tried in the past,  efforts to oppose them have proved futile.  It is very important that what is portrayed in TV ads, should be correct and harmless, if imitated by the viewers, especially children. 

Vivo oil for diabetics, show the wife frying purees in the hot oil and the 'diabetic' husband is singing praises for the new oil, and he is seated on the cooking platform, just next to the cooking range with the hot oil.  A very dangerous situation has been shown.  The other ad that is not in good taste, is the Colgate toothbrush ad, showing a teacher speaking to parents on open day at school, and the junior student tells the teacher that she had spinach for dinner, the previous night, because it is still stuck between her teeth. Naturo Sugarfree saccharine drops are advertised, where the husband wants nimboo paani after his jogging, and the wife and a very minor daughter remind him that the sugar will nullify his exercise with sugar calories, and that sugarfree is better.  The minor also agrees wisely.  Millions of kids who watch this ad, will empathise with the advise and resort to sugarfree.   The ad does not advise that it is advisable only for adults with diabeties or obesity problems, and is not good for growing children.

Indian roads are so badly maintained and yet there are so many car and bike ads. Easy loans and gifts are promised to buyers.  Families and lovers and even children recommend expensive vehicles.  Very misleading, because it is not as if buying a vehicle will solve your problems and make your family sublime with happiness.  Very often, bank loans are taken for vehicles and it is a cause of tension for so many families, that could have been happier without the burden.

Then the option for entertainment are the hindi soaps for most families.  Ekta Kapoor tends to hone into serials that build a rapport with the audience and let her laugh all the way to the bank.  As a teacher, I have realized that even very small children, example standard one students, are watching  TV  programmes, upto ten pm and very aware of the various characters depicted in the serials and can imitate and even repeat dialogues of many of the shows.  It was very tough, penalising students for the phrase 'babaji ka thulloo' and the accompanying hand action, that was so popular because of  'the Kapil Sharma Show'.

The typical 'saas bahu'  TV dramas, immortalise mean attitude, poisoning food, materialistic habits and emotional blackmail, as the done thing.  These shows also propogate heavy make-up, expensive jewellery and outfits and elaborate hairdos.  Very very phony.

I prefer watching news programmes.