Remembering Madhav
First few shots into "Taare Zameen Pe"… and I felt numb.
Taare Zameen Pe is a movie made by one of the finest actors in Indian cinema… Aamir Khan. I have loved his performances in a wide array of movies… from "Dil Hai ki Manta Nahi", "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander", "Ghulam", "Lagaan", "Dil Chahta Hai" and more lately "Rang De Basanti"…. Good actors are often accused of having limited understanding of Cinema as a media… and often mediocre actors, having a keen eye on the subtleties of the media, outperform the good actors… when it comes to narrating a narrative. Aamir violates this oft repeated generalization.
The movie tells you a story of a small boy Ishan… who is a dismal failure in academics… he suffers from Dyslexia, though nobody including his own parents understand him… he is a butt of laughter, an object of ridicule and abuse by others… and remains so… till comes a teacher who understands him. A teacher who discovers that Ishan may not compete with his fellow mates in reading a passage… but surpasses them by miles in creativity.
That reminded me of something… rather someone.
Indian society suffers from an acute sense of denial when it comes to acknowledging such learning disabilities. Seldom will you see that special facilities are offered by normal schools to such students. Even seldom you will see that parents or teachers will be able to realize and acknowledge that a student suffers from some learning disabilities. What happens more often is that… such a kid is forced into a system which doesn’t understands his needs and forced to compete in an inherently unjust atmosphere… and when he does not performs… he is dubbed as lazy, idiot, and often even mentally retarded.
This in turn creates a sense of inferiority complex in the student and he is sucked into a vortex of never ending downward spiral. He was born normal… with a small extra need… and ends up as being bracketed as a mentally retard. And the system chugs along… because a few cogs falling apart in this giant system… doesn’t make a shit of a difference to the system.
Even today I remember the face of Madhav… very very distinctly… I met him first in Class 1st in St. Joseph's College. He was normal…played normally with the same child like enthusiasm as we did. He used to feel happy at the end of school… loved rains, and rainy days… felt terrified by Mrs. Mukherji (who had only one USP… thrashing students black and blue)… he was one among us.
Till… it was exam eve… when he turned sheepish. Sheepish and even more sheepish, when the results came…he used to fail badly…
He however kept pace with us in terms of classes, due to the liberal policy of promotion adopted by our school… but sooner or later the inevitable was to take place. He started being detained. We moved ahead and he was out of sight. But not out of mind.
He was being cruelly tagged as a lazy, retarded nut of the school… he was fastly becoming a butt of laughter; object of ridicule and most importantly of abuse. And everybody participated in that orgy because that was the easiest thing to do.
I wasn’t particularly a central part of that orgy… admittedly, because I myself was very timid… was bullied by different set of guys at different timings till the fag end of my schooling… my transformation into an assertive person started when the hostels happened to me. Today I take my past in my stride… being simple and innocent is not a bad thing… being a bully actually is a bad thing… it shows the hollowness of your values, and value system… it actually disrobes and rapes one's own upbringing and parentage. And howsoever big and successful you may become… it doesn’t change the fact that you had an obscene parentage, a mutilated upbringing.
But, nevertheless, I enjoyed the orgy… I laughed at his torment. He continued skipping classes… studied with my younger brother and even younger cousin… till he was lost into oblivion.
A non-performer was got rid of… by the system.
Then nobody told me that the orgy was wrong… I give a benefit of doubt to my parents… for they did not know that such an orgy existed. But never did my teachers suggest me the immorality of such an orgy… nor did the society…
But we were wrong… Madhav was not a retard… he had an amazing memory… he knew all the names of all the students who studied with him, ever… He saw my younger brother for the first time… and without tallying our surnames said –are you younger brother of Pranav. He was gifted… only our scale of measuring his talent were wrong.
We owe an apology to Madhav… I owe an apology to him… but the system had sent him to such a dense oblivion that nobody can find him…
But I promise Madhav… I will teach my son the value system that I never inherited… I will teach him a sense of morality… and God forbid if my son is another Madhav… I will take care of him… I wouldn’t let him be an object of abuse…
This would be my apology. Sorry Madhav
Taare Zameen Pe is a movie made by one of the finest actors in Indian cinema… Aamir Khan. I have loved his performances in a wide array of movies… from "Dil Hai ki Manta Nahi", "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander", "Ghulam", "Lagaan", "Dil Chahta Hai" and more lately "Rang De Basanti"…. Good actors are often accused of having limited understanding of Cinema as a media… and often mediocre actors, having a keen eye on the subtleties of the media, outperform the good actors… when it comes to narrating a narrative. Aamir violates this oft repeated generalization.
The movie tells you a story of a small boy Ishan… who is a dismal failure in academics… he suffers from Dyslexia, though nobody including his own parents understand him… he is a butt of laughter, an object of ridicule and abuse by others… and remains so… till comes a teacher who understands him. A teacher who discovers that Ishan may not compete with his fellow mates in reading a passage… but surpasses them by miles in creativity.
That reminded me of something… rather someone.
Indian society suffers from an acute sense of denial when it comes to acknowledging such learning disabilities. Seldom will you see that special facilities are offered by normal schools to such students. Even seldom you will see that parents or teachers will be able to realize and acknowledge that a student suffers from some learning disabilities. What happens more often is that… such a kid is forced into a system which doesn’t understands his needs and forced to compete in an inherently unjust atmosphere… and when he does not performs… he is dubbed as lazy, idiot, and often even mentally retarded.
This in turn creates a sense of inferiority complex in the student and he is sucked into a vortex of never ending downward spiral. He was born normal… with a small extra need… and ends up as being bracketed as a mentally retard. And the system chugs along… because a few cogs falling apart in this giant system… doesn’t make a shit of a difference to the system.
Even today I remember the face of Madhav… very very distinctly… I met him first in Class 1st in St. Joseph's College. He was normal…played normally with the same child like enthusiasm as we did. He used to feel happy at the end of school… loved rains, and rainy days… felt terrified by Mrs. Mukherji (who had only one USP… thrashing students black and blue)… he was one among us.
Till… it was exam eve… when he turned sheepish. Sheepish and even more sheepish, when the results came…he used to fail badly…
He however kept pace with us in terms of classes, due to the liberal policy of promotion adopted by our school… but sooner or later the inevitable was to take place. He started being detained. We moved ahead and he was out of sight. But not out of mind.
He was being cruelly tagged as a lazy, retarded nut of the school… he was fastly becoming a butt of laughter; object of ridicule and most importantly of abuse. And everybody participated in that orgy because that was the easiest thing to do.
I wasn’t particularly a central part of that orgy… admittedly, because I myself was very timid… was bullied by different set of guys at different timings till the fag end of my schooling… my transformation into an assertive person started when the hostels happened to me. Today I take my past in my stride… being simple and innocent is not a bad thing… being a bully actually is a bad thing… it shows the hollowness of your values, and value system… it actually disrobes and rapes one's own upbringing and parentage. And howsoever big and successful you may become… it doesn’t change the fact that you had an obscene parentage, a mutilated upbringing.
But, nevertheless, I enjoyed the orgy… I laughed at his torment. He continued skipping classes… studied with my younger brother and even younger cousin… till he was lost into oblivion.
A non-performer was got rid of… by the system.
Then nobody told me that the orgy was wrong… I give a benefit of doubt to my parents… for they did not know that such an orgy existed. But never did my teachers suggest me the immorality of such an orgy… nor did the society…
But we were wrong… Madhav was not a retard… he had an amazing memory… he knew all the names of all the students who studied with him, ever… He saw my younger brother for the first time… and without tallying our surnames said –are you younger brother of Pranav. He was gifted… only our scale of measuring his talent were wrong.
We owe an apology to Madhav… I owe an apology to him… but the system had sent him to such a dense oblivion that nobody can find him…
But I promise Madhav… I will teach my son the value system that I never inherited… I will teach him a sense of morality… and God forbid if my son is another Madhav… I will take care of him… I wouldn’t let him be an object of abuse…
This would be my apology. Sorry Madhav
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