AUM
CHINESE TEACHERS GET CULTURAL SHOCKS IN AMERICA
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
Zhong Yue, a 27 year old Chinese teacher enters her classroom in a school in Lawton, Oklahoma, USA to teach the American students Chinese language. Some students are chewing gum, others are just in a relaxing mode; half sitting and half lying in their seats. No one gets up to honour the teacher. Zhong Yue is shocked at this behaviour of her students.
The student advisor explained to her later that it is considered normal behaviour in that part of the world. The Chinese teacher found it in contrast to the student behaviour back home in China. There the moment students see a teacher enter a classroom, they jump to attention. Not doing so in America did not mean showing any disrespect to a teacher by the students, the headmaster explained later.
TEACHING – LEARNING PROCESS
Zhong Yue found her American students intelligent and quick on the uptake. They were keen on learning the new language, especially the script comprising characters that represented ideas. There are no alphabets in Chinese script unlike English. The American students found the script and the tonal spoken language rather difficult to learn. But the patience and perseverance of the Chinese teacher and the desire of students to learn a new language worked like a spoonful of sugar that makes the bitter medicine go down in a delightful way. Their combined efforts produced results and in the periodical tests no one submitted a blank answer sheet. Three cheers to the teacher and the taught, so said the academic head of the secondary wing of languages.
The class was going on smoothly day after day and week after week. There was a storm in the tea cup of the oriental teacher. As she was writing the Chinese characters on the black board, there was a minor commotion in the class. A teenage student entered with a new born baby in her lap and showed her to the class with a sense of pride. Students welcomed the new arrival in the lap of an unwed teenage mother and celebrated with a loud clapping. Our Zhong Yue was in for a bigger cultural shock. How could this happen, she mused. In China it is just unthinkable. The social set up would never allow it, she surmised. America is America and China is China, so she figured. Rudyard Kipling the imperialistic English poet had written more than a century ago “East is East, West is West; the Twain shall never meet.”The young Chinese teacher, still a spinster, consoled herself that her job is teaching the Chinese language to Americans and not to meddle with their social system.
Zhong Yue was not alone in receiving cultural shocks in America. Other Chinese teachers spread out over the length and breadth of the United States were in for similar cultural shocks. Wiser counsels prevailed and they continued with their assignments taking new life in a philosophical way. Confucius, Buddha and Tao came to their help and rescued them.
Both the Chinese and American governments are keen that the Chinese language, now called the Pútung Hua or the common man’s language, be taught to the American students all over the country. This will be helpful in the ever growing volume of trade and commerce between the two countries. To achieve the aim, as many as 325 native Chinese teachers from mainland China have been seconded to various secondary schools in America. The Chinese government pays its teachers US dollars 13,000 each whereas the US government pays US dollars 500 each plus free furnished accommodation and transport facility where required. On an exchange programme the United States has deployed as many as 2000 educational administrators in China to advise the local administration on nuances of modern management.
CHINESE RELISH AMERICAN BURGER
By and by the Chinese teachers are taking to American burger like fish takes to water. It does not mean that they have forgotten the taste of noodles. No, not at all. The Chinese food in America called Chop Suey has noodles as the base on which a garnishing of pork is relished. By the way, both the American people and the Chinese people love to eat pork. This may be one of the reasons why the Islamic world is not comfortable in their company except when their cash comes handy. Pork takes a back seat in the Middle-East psyche then.
The Chinese teachers enjoy working five days a week and join the faculty for fun in the weekends. This gives them an opportunity to sharpen their knowledge of English and master the American accent too. In an informal exchange of ideas with their counterparts, the Chinese teachers informally register their abhorrence of the American student lifestyle. Drinking and dating and a freedom to have sex is beyond the imagination of the guest Chinese teachers.
The Chinese educationists are of the opinion that the student community should have only one thing uppermost in their minds and it is STUDY. Nothing in life should be permitted to detract a student from achieving his or her primary aim. Smoking, drinking, dating and indulging in teenage pre-marital sex make students deviate from their chosen path. So, it would be advisable to shun such mundane pleasures that pave the way to hell. When confronted with the age-old saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, the retort was that all play and no work makes Jack a worthless boy. After a free and frank exchange of views a middle road was found. A little of fun thrown into a busy academic schedule will not lead the students astray. Of course, sports will provide a healthy outlet and that must be encouraged at all levels.”A healthy mind in a healthy body” is the panacea of all ills at this impressionable age.
The teaching of the Pútung Hua is going on at its normal pace and a promise of positive results is on the academic horizon.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
HUSSAIN A RANK COMMUNALIST IN HIS PAINTINGS
AUM
HUSSAIN’S ART SMELLS OF RANK COMMUN
By Chitranjan Sawant
Meet the man who manoeuvres to remain in the news all the time for all the wrong reasons. He sports a white beard, white longish hair, wears a kurta-pyjama and walks around barefoot in all seasons. Many a club or a hotel slammed their doors on him because they found his appearance not presentable and obnoxious to hi-fi guests. He welcomed such episodes as these brought him into the limelight through the ever hungry media, both print and electronics.
His name is Maqbool Fida Hussain and he professes to be an artist. A brush and a canvass to be painted in oil or water colours are his tools with which he has pocketed millions of dollars from the rich but ignorant people who wish to keep up with the Joneses. His bizarre paintings fetch more money in outlandish exhibitions than at home. The Sheikhs of the Arabian countries loosen their purses to buy something that they do not understand but their foreign wives find fashionable.
COURTING CONTROVERSIES
MF Hussain thrives on controversies. The more, the merrier – that is his motto. The unsavoury controversies keep his name and mien in circulation and bring both notoriety and popularity; (it depends on which side of the fence you are). Such controversies indeed are money spinners. Our hero-cum-villain loves money. He worships Mammon, keeping Allah in the wraps for that period. This helps him wear his pseudo-secular credentials on the sleeves and enables him to keep the Islamist terrorism at bay ostensibly. He practises and promotes religious terror of sorts and is a past master of religious discrimination as we shall see for ourselves shortly.
Hussain was born in India and thus is a natural citizen of the great land called Bharat. But there is no love lost between the two. A billion strong citizens of India address their motherland as Bharat Mata – Mother India. However, Hussain’s head is where his heart should be. His head says “denigrate Bharat Mata, create a controversy, gain notoriety and earn more money.”His heart is in Dubai where he lives at present and has acquired its citizenship too. M.F.Hussain courted controversy by painting a portrait of Bharat Mata in the nude with an outline sketch of the country around. He and his mindless friends hailed the said obnoxious painting of Bharat Mata in the nude as an Expression of Artistic Freedom. What a shame! In the name of artistic freedom, the perverted mind of Hussain brought Mother India into international disrepute. He deserved to be exiled but survived with the support of pseudo-secularists and cumbersome legal system. The public pressure, however, forced him to flee India and take refuge in Dubai and show off his numerous cars like Rolls Royce, Bentley and what have you.
Here is a contrast that exposes Hussain’s rank communalism. He let his brush move up and down the canvas cautiously. He made a painting of his mother and also that of an unidentified Muslim lady. In reverence, both are fully clad and no part of the body is visible. Just short of a Burqa or a hijab, the ladies are fully clothed and have been given an aura of social respectability. Hussain’s biological mother is all dressed up but the Mother of a Billion Indians, Bharat Mata, is shown in the nude. Why? It is just not an expression of freedom of the artist’s brush but an exhibition of mental perversion and laying bare his hatred for all things that the Hindus worship. The worse follows.
It was indeed mean of Hussain to have painted the Hindu goddess Durga in the nude and showing sexual nuances with her mount, the lion. By any standard, it was an act of sacrilege and certainly not an exhibition of artist’s freedom of expression. My abhorrence of that man masquerading as an artist precludes from citing such examples where reverence is shown to Islamic women but nudity is thrust upon Hindu goddesses. Hussain had once painted Hitler headless and another person in the nude to announce from housetops how he hated them. I wonder if Hussain too subscribes to the Pakistani’s Hate Hindu campaign. The artistic evidence has put Hussain in the dock. Let him have a chance to defend himself under the magnanimity of the Hindu ethos.
One wonders why Hussain has been ignoring the Muslim women of prominence from joining the gallery of nude portraits. The most venerable young bride of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH), Sallallah Wasale Wasallum, was intelligent and advised administrators on matters of State. Ayesha was her name. Hussain should have tried a portrait of Ayesha like that of Bharat Mata. He did not do so for reasons known to him. Does it not amount to discrimination? Perhaps the Muslim element in him took control of the artist element and he painted the Hindu goddesses in the nude to denigrate a vast majority of his compatriots. Shame on Hussain and on those who espouse his cause under the mistaken belief that they thus promote a plural society. It is nothing but rabid communalism to appease the Muslim vote-bank.
I shall concede the point that poor Hussain could not have painted the Prophet and exhibited his artistic freedom as it is forbidden in Islam. It is one of the rare occasions when the Muslim in Hussain gains ascendancy and locks him out of the realm of Islam. I would, however, like to remind the artist , now a nonagenarian, that painting another great lady, Fatima, is not forbidden. As a beloved daughter of the Prophet, she should have been taken note of by our morbid Hussain. But he failed to do so and the gallery of paintings of the eminent ladies in the nude was deprived of a great possession. Artist Hussain has to answer for this gross dereliction of duty towards the Muse. Let us borrow the eternally famous words of Jesus Christ spoken when the life was ebbing out after crucifixion :
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Perhaps, Hussain the artist does not know what he has missed by being discriminatory in painting some and leaving out other eminent ladies in the nude. Let us wish him better luck next time when he feels inspired to paint women in the nude so that he spreads his net far and wide without any bias, fear or favour. Adieu our ex-compatriot! Now we sign off.
UPVAN 609, Sector 29, NOIDA – 201303, INDIA. Mobile : 0091-9811173590.
Email. upvanom@yahoo.com and sawantg.chitranjan@gmail.com
HUSSAIN’S ART SMELLS OF RANK COMMUN
By Chitranjan Sawant
Meet the man who manoeuvres to remain in the news all the time for all the wrong reasons. He sports a white beard, white longish hair, wears a kurta-pyjama and walks around barefoot in all seasons. Many a club or a hotel slammed their doors on him because they found his appearance not presentable and obnoxious to hi-fi guests. He welcomed such episodes as these brought him into the limelight through the ever hungry media, both print and electronics.
His name is Maqbool Fida Hussain and he professes to be an artist. A brush and a canvass to be painted in oil or water colours are his tools with which he has pocketed millions of dollars from the rich but ignorant people who wish to keep up with the Joneses. His bizarre paintings fetch more money in outlandish exhibitions than at home. The Sheikhs of the Arabian countries loosen their purses to buy something that they do not understand but their foreign wives find fashionable.
COURTING CONTROVERSIES
MF Hussain thrives on controversies. The more, the merrier – that is his motto. The unsavoury controversies keep his name and mien in circulation and bring both notoriety and popularity; (it depends on which side of the fence you are). Such controversies indeed are money spinners. Our hero-cum-villain loves money. He worships Mammon, keeping Allah in the wraps for that period. This helps him wear his pseudo-secular credentials on the sleeves and enables him to keep the Islamist terrorism at bay ostensibly. He practises and promotes religious terror of sorts and is a past master of religious discrimination as we shall see for ourselves shortly.
Hussain was born in India and thus is a natural citizen of the great land called Bharat. But there is no love lost between the two. A billion strong citizens of India address their motherland as Bharat Mata – Mother India. However, Hussain’s head is where his heart should be. His head says “denigrate Bharat Mata, create a controversy, gain notoriety and earn more money.”His heart is in Dubai where he lives at present and has acquired its citizenship too. M.F.Hussain courted controversy by painting a portrait of Bharat Mata in the nude with an outline sketch of the country around. He and his mindless friends hailed the said obnoxious painting of Bharat Mata in the nude as an Expression of Artistic Freedom. What a shame! In the name of artistic freedom, the perverted mind of Hussain brought Mother India into international disrepute. He deserved to be exiled but survived with the support of pseudo-secularists and cumbersome legal system. The public pressure, however, forced him to flee India and take refuge in Dubai and show off his numerous cars like Rolls Royce, Bentley and what have you.
Here is a contrast that exposes Hussain’s rank communalism. He let his brush move up and down the canvas cautiously. He made a painting of his mother and also that of an unidentified Muslim lady. In reverence, both are fully clad and no part of the body is visible. Just short of a Burqa or a hijab, the ladies are fully clothed and have been given an aura of social respectability. Hussain’s biological mother is all dressed up but the Mother of a Billion Indians, Bharat Mata, is shown in the nude. Why? It is just not an expression of freedom of the artist’s brush but an exhibition of mental perversion and laying bare his hatred for all things that the Hindus worship. The worse follows.
It was indeed mean of Hussain to have painted the Hindu goddess Durga in the nude and showing sexual nuances with her mount, the lion. By any standard, it was an act of sacrilege and certainly not an exhibition of artist’s freedom of expression. My abhorrence of that man masquerading as an artist precludes from citing such examples where reverence is shown to Islamic women but nudity is thrust upon Hindu goddesses. Hussain had once painted Hitler headless and another person in the nude to announce from housetops how he hated them. I wonder if Hussain too subscribes to the Pakistani’s Hate Hindu campaign. The artistic evidence has put Hussain in the dock. Let him have a chance to defend himself under the magnanimity of the Hindu ethos.
One wonders why Hussain has been ignoring the Muslim women of prominence from joining the gallery of nude portraits. The most venerable young bride of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH), Sallallah Wasale Wasallum, was intelligent and advised administrators on matters of State. Ayesha was her name. Hussain should have tried a portrait of Ayesha like that of Bharat Mata. He did not do so for reasons known to him. Does it not amount to discrimination? Perhaps the Muslim element in him took control of the artist element and he painted the Hindu goddesses in the nude to denigrate a vast majority of his compatriots. Shame on Hussain and on those who espouse his cause under the mistaken belief that they thus promote a plural society. It is nothing but rabid communalism to appease the Muslim vote-bank.
I shall concede the point that poor Hussain could not have painted the Prophet and exhibited his artistic freedom as it is forbidden in Islam. It is one of the rare occasions when the Muslim in Hussain gains ascendancy and locks him out of the realm of Islam. I would, however, like to remind the artist , now a nonagenarian, that painting another great lady, Fatima, is not forbidden. As a beloved daughter of the Prophet, she should have been taken note of by our morbid Hussain. But he failed to do so and the gallery of paintings of the eminent ladies in the nude was deprived of a great possession. Artist Hussain has to answer for this gross dereliction of duty towards the Muse. Let us borrow the eternally famous words of Jesus Christ spoken when the life was ebbing out after crucifixion :
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Perhaps, Hussain the artist does not know what he has missed by being discriminatory in painting some and leaving out other eminent ladies in the nude. Let us wish him better luck next time when he feels inspired to paint women in the nude so that he spreads his net far and wide without any bias, fear or favour. Adieu our ex-compatriot! Now we sign off.
UPVAN 609, Sector 29, NOIDA – 201303, INDIA. Mobile : 0091-9811173590.
Email. upvanom@yahoo.com and sawantg.chitranjan@gmail.com
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