I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SPEAKING

“Universe is made of stories, not atoms.”

        Muriel Rukeyser

 

One of my students, a 16-year-old  from class X1, is very fond of my blogs. “Sir, can you share today’s blog?”… he keeps sending this request, mostly, when he sends his homework.

This morning, I was asking them this question: “Do you know the difference between Carriage, Freight and Cartage?”

I keep asking this to my T.Y. students, too. Though Commerce (Accountancy) students use these terms almost every day, in every sum of Final Accounts, they seldom pause to know the difference… Invariably, all Commerce students. So, I try to catch my Commerce kids young and encourage them to ask questions, so that they find the answers early. “Unless you ask the right questions, you won’t get the right answers,” I keep reminding them, “Enquire… Be curious, childlike.”

“Carriage, Freight and Cartage – all these terms refer to transportation cost,” I explained, today. I continued: “If road transport (like truck or tempo) is used, it is ‘Carriage’; if  transported through aircrafts, ships and trains, it is ‘Freight’; if transported through a handcart or a bullock cart, it is ‘Cartage’… and, if carried on head, it is ‘Coolie charges.” 

I could see Shrihan’s sleepy eyes suddenly sparkling!

Then, I told them this story, Prof. B.S. Raman, my own idol, had told, one afternoon, when he was teaching our packed classroom of boys, otherwise the dry subject – ‘Commercial Geography’…

Centuries ago, Captain Cook, the explorer from England, had landed in a faraway island, which is now called Australia. Tribals lived in this remote land… When he saw those interesting animals, with babies tucked in their pockets and jumping around everywhere, Captain Cook drew their sketches and asked a native fellow, “What is the name of this animal?”

The tribal man looked at the Englishman, head to toe, and said, “Kangaroo.”

A little distance later, Captain Cook asked another native fellow the same question…

The same was the look, and the same was the answer.

Thoroughly convinced by these answers, the great explorer wrote in his discovery: “This unique animal in Australia is called ‘Kangaroo’ by the natives.”

Poor Captain Cook! He did not realize, that what the natives said to him was: “I don’t know what you are speaking – ‘Kangaroo’!”

So, every time my native Commerce-students look at me, head to toe, when I ask them something - like the difference between Carriage, Fright and Cartage – I hear, ‘Kangaroo’… “Sir, we don’t know what you are speaking”…

Raman Sir, kept us awake in our afternoon sessions, when the classrooms had no fans even, with more than hundred college boys stuffed in each classroom… Here, the classrooms have air-conditioners, and it makes no difference if it is a morning or evening batch…

You see, the eyes of a Shrihan need an enchanting  story to make them open and sparkle…

On my way to the classes, this very morning, I had bumped into an old student of mine, who has come on a brief vacation from America where he has been working. His only daughter had attended our summer programme (on Personality Development) many years ago, when she was a little girl studying in class 7. “How is your daughter? What is she doing now?” I checked.

“Sir, she did psychology and now pursues a course in story and script writing.”

I was quite curious to know the shift in the young one’s career plans.

“Whatever they want to pursue, we should support our children,” girl’s father said…

“Oh yes, we should,” I expressed my agreement…

But, I was asking this question: “Where did I learn to weave stories every day, and tell them in my blogs? Did my parents ‘support’ me in this learning – of story and script writing?”

“Kangaroo”… I hear the answers through the heatwave, which has presently come to explore our town, just as Captain Cook had gone to explore the island of Australia, many, many years ago…

 

GERALD D’CUNHA                                       

Pic’s: Pixabay

Video: British Airways