November's crop of national leaders

Sometimes discussions that take place in an unplanned and incidental way in the classroom turn out to be much more valuable than organized, systematic, and syllabus-based teaching.  A casual question about the relative importance of the different months of the year threw some unusual light on November.  Students pointed out that November was an important month because both Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi were born in this month.  Further explorations, which took the form of an assignment, led us to the fact that, in terms of the births of national leaders, November is a significant month in the history of the nation because as many as twelve illustrious national leaders were born in this month.

In the very first week of the month, four great leaders were born.  Both Dadabhai Naoroji, the Grand Old Man of India, who, in collaboration with Hume, founded the Indian National Congress, and Jamanlal Bajaj, the Gandhian capitalist, whom the Mahatma described as his "fifth son", were born on November 4.  Desh Bandhu Chittaranjan Das was born on November 5, while his friend, Bepin Chandra Pal, 12 years his senior, was born on November 7.

Pal was known for his thundering speeches.  On his silver tongue, VS Srinivasa Sastry, himself a master orator, commented thus:  "Pal burst out into full flame in Madras as a preacher of the new political creed.  For several days on the sands of the beach, he spoke words with emotion, subtlety and logic, which were wafted by the swift evening breeze to tens and thousands of listeners, invading their whole souls and setting them aflame with the flavour of a wild consuming fire.  Oratory had never dreamt of such triumphs in India.  The value of the spoken word was never demonstrated on such a large scale."

Four formidable personalities were born in the second week.  Both Surendranath Banerjee, who guided the national movement even before the Indian National Congress came into existence, and Sachchidananda Sinha, one of the makers of modern Bihar, were born on November 10.  CP Ramaswamy Iyer to whom not many could hold a candle in intellectual brilliance and generosity was born on November 12.  And Pandit Jawharlal Nehru, "the gentle colossus", as Hiren Mukherjee described him, was born on November 14, which is celebrated as Children's Day.

For the third week of November, we were able to find only one name -- that of Indira Gandhi, who was born on November 19.

In the fourth week was born the multi-faceted Pattabhi Sitaramayya on the 24th^.  It is well known that he wrote the 1600-page History of the Congress in just two months during a hot summer at Machilipatnam.  What is not so well known is Gandhi's description of himself as a "bania sutrakar" and Pattabhi Sitaramayya as his "brahmin bhashyakar".  Hari Singh Gour and MR Jayakar, members of the Constituent Assembly, were born on November 26 and 30 respectively.

The hills are still alive with music

It is difficult to forget that hauntingly melodious film, The Sound of Music, one of the best loved musicals based on the real-life story of the singing von Trapp family, who escaped Nazi persecution by making use of a Salazburg music festival to cross over the Alps.  Wise, the producer and director of the film, never thought that the film would become a record-breaker at the box office.  But it turned out to be the first film to gross over $ 100 million.  And it is one of the most beloved musicals of all times: some of the numbers like 'Do re mi…', 'Sixteen going on seventeen…', 'Edelweiss…' and 'So long farewell…' have been in the heart of just about everyone who has seen the film ever since 1965 when the film was released.  The film ran for 1,443 performances and earned seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.  The original cast album earned a Gold Record and the Grammy Award.  Captain von Trapp (played by Christopher Plummer) singing a prayer ('Bless my homeland forever'), the pure and innocent Maria (Julie Andrews) singing about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, and the lovely scenery of Salazburg and the Austrian Alps, among others, have an evocative charm.

Jarring notes emerged from the Captain's guitar a few years ago when the Trapp family (the children, I mean, because Maria had died in 1987 and the Captain forty years before that) were in the news: they had fallen out with one another over the control of a hotel they had established at Vermont in the US.

There is some refreshing news about the Trapp family now.  The hills are alive with the sound of music again: four great-grandchildren of Captain von Trapp have revived the family tradition.  Sofia (13), Melanie (11), Amanda (10), and Justin (7) have gone into the singing business.  They have released their first CD and signed up with a music label.  The marketing is being done under the name, 'The von Trapp Children'.

Their father, Stephen von Trapp, never thought that the family was musically inclined.  But when he listened to a tape of songs sung by the four children, he realized what a gift they had been bestowed with.  The best way of valuing the gift, he thought, was to let the children sing and represent the family tradition.

The von Trapp family's hearts have been "blessed with the sound of music" again, and they will "sing once more".

Professionals miss simple solutions

One day, while pointlessly browsing on the Internet, I came upon a short quiz consisting of just four questions.  Anderson Consulting Worldwide (ACW), which offered the quiz, claimed that the quiz would reveal whether a person was qualified to be a professional or not.  The questions were very simple, but all my answers went wrong.

The first question was: "How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?"  I wouldn't try to do anything so stupid, I thought.  Where was the need in any case?  Even if there was need…  At last, I thought of two complicated means of putting a giraffe into a fridge.  When I checked my answer with the correct one given by ACW, I felt foolish.  The correct answer was: "Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door."  So simple! 

Now the second question: "How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?"  Simple, I thought: open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator.  No, wrong.  The correct answer was: "Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant, and close the door."  How stupid of me, I thought, and decided to be careful in answering the next question. 

The next question was: "The Lion King is hosting an Animal Conference.  All the animals except one attend.  Which animal does not attend?"   How the deuce was I to know?  I didn't answer the question and checked the answer key.  The correct answer was: "The animal that doesn't attend the conference is, of course, the elephant.  It cannot attend because it is in the refrigerator.  You just put him in there.  Remember?"  Yes, yes, yes.

Now the last question: "You have to cross a river inhabited by crocodiles.  How will you manage it?"  How would I manage it?  Would I kill all the crocodiles?  Would I distract their attention?  But how?  I checked the answer key.  The correct answer was: "You swim across.  All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting."  I should have learnt from my earlier mistake and got this question right, but I didn't.

But I drew consolation from the fact that whether, according to this quiz, I was qualified to be a professional or not, my thinking was similar to that of a large number of professionals.  Around 90 per cent of the professionals that ACW tested got all questions wrong!  But many boys and girls at the primary level got several correct answers. 

What is ACW's conclusion from this test?  It claims that the test conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four-year-old!