'the great indian school show'

dad and me watched incredulous as in ‘the great indian school show’- a documentary that mukul gave us to watch we saw a power mad principal install 185 cameras in every nook and corner of his school. technology is deployed as a tool in the hands of big brother to make sure than nothing untoward happens. the rationale for this surveillance (like almost any other) was discipline and safety. ‘good behavior’ . to compare it to a prison is not only obvious – it is the very intention of the project.

what was irritating but not surprising was the way in which the teachers and the students too like zombies mouthed words of praise and approval for this most despicable of techniques to iron out individuality, analytical thought and creativity. that’s what a good school or a good education unfortunately has ended up being understood as. perhaps this school (ironically the name of the school is the mahatma gandhi school.) is only the logical extreme of technical institutes all over the country where we make skilled hands with no brains attached. note to many of our own faculty here.

the end of the film where a singing teacher sings ‘happy birthday to veena’ (‘v’ is for victory / ‘na’ is for knowledge) over the intercom to the tune of ‘you are my sonia’ was hilarious and sad at the same time.