Revisiting of an old classic movie “ To sir with love "

I had the chance the other day to watch an old classic “ To sir with love “. The movie was made in 1967 and it was a great hit at that time and a movie for all generations to come subsequently. It is based on an autobiographical novel by E. R. Braithwaite in 1959.

It is starring the handsome Sidney Poitier , who has given a poignant performance. When the movie ends , we feel like we did not have enough of him.

The story is about how an engineer trainee who is on the lookout for a job related to his skill , decides to take up a temporary assignment of teaching high school students to fill up the gap until he lands a job of his liking. He is new to the teaching profession.

He takes up an assignment of teaching high school students from the slum areas of London.

The students are an unruly lot who bad mouth , dress shabbily , can’t read a proper sentence in English . They have been successful in ensuring that no teacher stays there for a long time. If any one stays back , they have to toe their line.

The film is about how the new teacher is able to bring about a change in the attitude of the students. He does not treat them like kids but like adults. He is aware of their troubled backgrounds and that they come from disturbed families. For him their well being and their future is most important than any other consideration. He is able to swallow the hurt and his pride when the students ill treat him in the beginning. For him their transformation is the ultimate goal.

The movie is very touching in the sense that how an idealistic teacher without any experience can bring about a change in the heart. It depicts very clearly that irrespective of the background they come from , violent students can be changed and nurtured into becoming a responsible and matured adults by appealing to the time tested instincts of love , understanding , compassion , discipline and firmness in dealing with unaccepted behavior.

The director has crafted a great movie and he has dealt the social and racial issues in a school in a very deft and able manner.

Hope our present generation of movie makers take a leaf out of this movie on how to make a socially relevant movie which can appeal to all sections of the society .

The 2011 World cup cricket final that made our cup brim meth with joy

The 2011 world cup cricket final on 2^nd April 11 was a memorable event and the build up to that event had been quite exhilarating and exhausting.

In the house , everyone used to sit at the same place for watching all the matches and this way we felt we contributed in some way to the Indian team winning. If anyone changed the sitting position then everyone used to fall like a pile of bricks on that person and prevent the change in position.

To watch the final for the first half we all decided to visit our cousin’s house. This was a cardinal mistake made. We watched the Sri lanka ‘s Innings and on our way we heard the commentary when the Indian team started batting. Both Sehwag and Tendulkar got out cheaply and we were all in a sulky mood and thought not watching at home caused the wicket losses . We managed to reach home in time to prevent further fall of wickets.

As soon as we reached the house , we all settled in our usual positions . From then on Gambhir ,Virat and Dhoni steadied the innings and the rest is history.

The latest entrants to the crazy cricket fans list is my brother – in – law ‘s two daughters aged 6 and 12 years. They got baptized to cricket by learning to shout at every boundary scored and every opposition wicket lost. They thought the seniors in the house have become mad and are shouting at the drop of a hat but nevertheless they enjoyed it. What better fun can children have other than shouting at the top of the voice and seeing everyone else also doing the same.

We seniors were desperate that India must not loose and if we lost it would be a bigger calamity than Tsunami that happened recently in Japan. But the six year old girl in the house turned out to be most mature in the entire gang. She was preparing some present to be given to the Indian team on winning. I asked her what she will do if India looses. She mentioned that she will still give the prize to Indian team and tell them that they will win it next time. That innocent and matured answer stumped all of us. Now can we not as a cricket crazy nation have the same attitude towards cricket. Why make it so larger than life and a question of life and death .

Though I have been brought up on a diet of cricket and bollywood movies, I am still perplexed at why we are so crazy for cricket. I am not able to understand the collective psyche that drives the nation to nuts. Cricket is a team game unlike other games where individual brilliances are more prominent. Have we given up on trying to do well in individual sports.

Are we as a nation bereft of enough role models in different fields that makes us cling to cricket for our salvation. If we don’t play other games , will we develop role models ?

With cricket becoming more popular ( was it any time less popular ) with the winning of world cup cricket , all our future generation would like to emulate the likes of Tendulkar , Dhoni ,etc . For them cricket looks the most glamorous game and playing it will ensure lot of moolah for the cricketers.

No one would want to emulate Vishwanth Anand , Leander Paes, Saina Newhal , Pankaj Advani and other individual brilliant players from the different fields. Though I am saying all these I am planning to watch the next edition of IPL cricket and I don’t know any other sports happening in the near future and I think the rest of the country’s attitude is also same. Unless there is some way to encourage other sports and more infrastructure facilities available , India may not be able to produce winners in other sports other than cricket.

Enough has been said about Dhoni’s captaincy. One of my observation is the emergence of people Like Dhoni from small places of India and the determination, ambition and the aspirational levels shown from people from very normal backgrounds augurs well for our country. These are the people who can take our country to greater levels. We see the hunger and the thirst to succeed in their eyes. Dhoni’s last shot of six and his determined look in seeing the ball sail past the boundary will be etched in our mind for a long time to come and this is the new look of India . I am happy to be part of these exciting times.