Training at EFLU

Thursday, 16 September 2010

Training at EFLU

Forty-two days have passed since our arrival in Hyderabad- 5th largest city in India- for the 21st Resource Persons’ course at EFLU which commenced on 4th August 2010.Though there is nothing special to do other than attending the classes with bag full of text-books provided to us (which gives me déjà-vu of my college days) and turning ourselves into ELT experts, I couldn’t find the time to write this blog despite my earnest desire to do so. Before I came here, I thought I’d get plenty of time to do all crazy things besides reading books and studying. Our classes start at 10 am and ends with all lunch and tea-breaks at 5 pm. Like school children we have our share of Home-work too which doesn’t leave any room for any aesthetic activities we might want to indulge in. However Saturdays-Sundays is a time of respite as university is closed on that day.

Our time-table displays a list of 32 high-profile professors from different departments of EFLU.32 professors for 32 trainees, all coming from different parts of India, speaking English with their regional accents! One- to-one teacher-student ratio. English is the lingua franca for us, not Hindi. I can’t talk to my Keralian friend, Rajeev, in Hindi as his Hindi is slightly better than that of Kamal Hasan in the film “EK DUJE KE LIYE” but not chaste enough to talk without misunderstanding each other. In the same way I can’t use Hindi when I talk to my Mizo friends.

To watch 32 professors conducting their classes is itself an enriching experience; one of the finest parts of this entire training. Observing is a form of learning, goes the age-old maxim. Besides, the the sight of AN ARTIST AT WORK is something we don’t come across easily in our life. An artist loses himself completely into the piece he is creating, forgetting all his mundane worries, likes, dislikes, weaknesses and all his emotional baggages. It may be a writer, a painter a musician or a simple potter or a cobbler. Creation demands that discipline.

Before I dwell on any further, I’d like to mention Meera Srinivas, all-India co-ordinator of DCS (District Centre Scheme) under which all DCEs (District Centres for English) are functioning in different states of India. I met her first before 8 months(February, 2010, to be precise) when I came to EFLU for 12-day Refresher Course. Once you come in contact with her, it doesn’t take much time to realise: here is a lady who is totally devoted to her job. Nothing escapes her mind that she is supposed to do.It is only when we meet a devoted person we realise the importance of an individual person in any institute or organisation. An institute on its own is mere skeleton without visionary people at the helm of the affairs. It is good that DCS has got her as its All-India co-ordinator .As a teacher she is even more appealing. I've attended many of her classes and have always found her well-prepared and her lecture interesting as well as informative. As she herself is a vibrant lady, she makes sure her classes are so too.We become so engrossed listening and responding to her that it is only when she calls it a day, we realise the lecture is over. In fact you can’t sit in her class without a notepad and pen because she has so many interesting things to talk about her topic whatever it may be at any particular point of time. Words and ideas flow from her mouth without any effort and you’d not like to miss any. I am all praises for her not only because she is sincereas an administrator, co-ordinator or a teacher, I respect her also because because she possesses all those qualities that we normally attach to our idea of a good human being: kind, caring, patient, liberal, understanding, dutiful, upright, smart, magnanimous... just to name a few.

The ambience at EFLU is unique. You just need to have a glance at the campus to experience it. You will find the presence of a heterogeneous group of students coming not only from different parts of India but also from different parts of the world, china, Russia, Germany, France, Aman et al. You bump into a foreign student at every corner of the campus and your ears hear a variety of sounds belonging to different languages. In her inauguration speech of our course pro-vice-chancellor Maya pundit had remarked “Here, we treat our students as mature adults and they are free to do anything they please as long as it is not something that harms the tradition of this university.” There is no dress code here so a students can wear any types of clothing he/she pleases to, so you see some Muslim girl students completely veiled in black burqa and western women in their western outfit( which may not be a pleasant sight to the eyes of the traditional Indian). People do feel culture shock if they are visiting EFLU for the first time.

Food is a major problem for all of us. On the campus there are two food joints: Nishi chapatti and Maitri Cafeteria, apart from mess for the students.1500 kms away from Gujarat, all we get here is idly and dosa, cooked rice and lentil, and South Indian chapati and puri that is far from our Gujarati Roti.I lost 5 kg just within 20 days of my arrival. After losing 5 kg I stopped having my meal at these places and started visiting girls’ hostel mess. Here they provide only cooked rice and lentil along with subji and butter-milk. No chapatti! Still girls seem to enjoy it. At night they provide the same things along with roti. And that makes a square meal for me and it is 80 % Gujarati in look and also in taste. I can say that this “Mess” has saved me from shedding more kilos.
Saturdays and Sundays is the time to chill out and hang out in the city. On the first Saturday after our arrival my colleagues Kalpesh and Jayesh sir and I went on a city bus tour along with our other friends. Last Satudrday they went to Shri Shailam to offer their prayers at the temple of Lord Mallikarjuna. I didn’t accompany them as I am going there when my friends Anil and Arvind will come to Hyderabad.

Traffic situation in Hyderabad is in a chaotic condition. Its flow on the roads is so severe that you’ve to keep waiting just to cross the road. Drivers enjoy exercising dangerous driving. It is you who have to take care of your body, they won’t. Ahmedabad is next to Hyderabad in being the largest city, still the traffic situation is not that bad. There drivers take care of pedestrians. Even if someone wants to commit suicide by throwing himself under the wheels of a speeding car or a truck, the driver would be kind and gracious enough not to allow the dishearten man exercise this privilege. I don't know how parents can allow their children to walk on these roads all by themselves...Well I do miss my bike when I my eyes catch someone riding a bike in a Brad Pitt manner. If I had my bike here, I'd love to road the entire city. It, then, would not look as strange as it looks even after one and a half months. I remember when I was in Ahmadabad, I had become familiar with entire city within 15 days. Without my bike I feel handicap in this regard. However not having a bike is, in a way, a blessing in disguise too. After resorting to Vinoba Express (i.e. Walking on foot) for all this time, now I have started experiencing the romance of walking. Tarnaka is one and a half kms away from where I am given accomadation. It has become my routine to go to tarnaka, with my roommates, early in the morning to buy newspapaers : The Hindu and The Times of India. The Hindu is very old and famous daily in south. It is available in Gujarat also, but late by one day.When I was working with TIME, Ahmedabad I used to read it. After buying newspaper we go to EFLU to have our morning tea. At this time, the campus looks quite peaceful. By the time chaiwala opens and prepares tea for us (we are his first customer of the day, so he treats us in the same way, like gods), we finish half of our newspaper reading, the rest half we finish with our tea. Occasionally we also visit secunderabad railway station area which is 4 kms away. Usuallly go there walking if there is no urgency to rush to have our meals etc.

Two new skills I have acquired here are : Playing badminton and Learning Telugu Alphabets. Telugu I learnt from the book which I purchased soon after I came here last month and Badminton I learnt from my Malayali friend Rajeev who is just my age, but stronger than me. He is a regular at court. Whenever I passed by the court, I would see him playing or waiting for his turn. One day I told him," I want to play it" fortunately he had one extra racket with him. That evening I accompanied him to the court. Two players were already playing on the court. rajeev talked to them and handed me the racket saying," Let's start a doubles game" I said, "But I don't know the rules" He said," No Problem, just keep hitting the shuttle when it comes near you. That's all" Within few days I gained enough confidence to go to court all by myself. Here I met another great player: Gandhi. Besides being handsome, he is the most stylist badminton player at EFLU. Watching him playing is a learning lesson in badminton. The style and the ease with which he plays stuns me. Rajeev told me he has played badminton at national level and won prizes. The other day while Gandhi and I were playing a doubles game, he told me," Your back hand shots are wonderful" I need not add that these words made my day.

There are so many more things to write about in this blog, but because Rajeev complains about the length of my posts, I would now put an end to it with the last thing I would love write about.It is book exhibitions, almost on a daily basis at EFLU. Sight of a book exhibition on the campus of our universities (Uni. in Gujarat) is uncommon, a rare sight.Here it is a part of daily routine. Different publications and retail book-seller pay money to this university to allow them to open thier makeshift shop. They display their books on the racks and this display doesn't fail to tempt the passers by into stopping there to have a casual look at the books which ultimately leads them into buying them. I've spent a lot of my time and money in perusing through books on display and buying them. Every third day there is new set of books by new publications with books on history, on ELT(English Language Teaching), on Languages....The glossy covers of books attract my eyes while I am passing by them and I just can't resist my urge to buy them. So far I have bought 70 books and I have four stacks of these books at my room. My biggest worry is : How shall I take them with me? How will I confront my mom when she will see two bags full of books? Kher, Jo hoga dekha Jaega.