The Brief but Bizarrely Captivating Moment of a Guest of Honour
August 24, 2010
The e-mail from the Fulbright office bristled with excitement, if such is possible. The PSBB schools invited me to be their 53rd Anniversary celebration Chief Guest/Guest of Honor. Although I it meant little to me at the time, this idea sounded fascinating. Most fascinating, I think, was the fact that this happened sight unseen; the school knew nothing about me except my credit as a Fulbright Scholar in Education.
Within a short timeframe, the Fulbright office set me up in an electronic conversation with the (or one of the, I am still unsure) Vice Principal. She wished for three things; clarify the Anniversary celebration, set up a meeting with her teachers and plan for a demonstration session with students. To satisfy the first, she sent me a 5 page overview of the Anniversary evening’s activities; a missive that outlined a celebration of the history and culture of South India. I wasn’t sure what it meant until later.
The day I met with the teachers, the school sent a private car to pick me up. As I arrived amidst a throng of parents picking up children (the street was jammed), the car entered a private driveway. I was whisked away to an a/c meeting room by one of the teachers, who slowly gathered a bunch of others. The VP, she said, had another meeting and wouldn’t be coming until later. And then we sat. The teachers asked what I was there for and I asked them what was I there for. Apparently, only the VP knew the agenda. However, we began to discuss purpose and philosophy and I found out slowly that this influential, well-respected school makes generous use of the arts. Many of the teachers talked about using drama and dance in their classes. What was apparent, however, was the still early understanding of how the arts can be integrated more significantly in the classrooms.
The VP did show up. I got a better understanding of the Anniversary celebration and discovered that the VP had been on a Fulbright herself and had taken a course in process drama and hoped I might demonstrate it at their school. Her first suggestion—concentrate on one class from each 9th and 10th standard and have all of the teachers and other students watch. We have since revised that idea.
A few days later I received a phone call from the school to ask when I would be home so they could drop off an invitation for the Anniversary. On Saturday, I received another call asking what time would be convenient. A half an hour after the time, I received another call to say that they couldn’t get to my home. Dressed in shorts and a t-shirt I stepped outside and found the Vp and principal near my house, but afraid to approach because of a stray dog (who, incidentally is my friend). I invited them in and they handed me a stack of invitations. After a brief chat, they headed off. My name appeared at the bottom of the invitation, as Guest of Honour. Cool.
The day before the event, I got a phone call to settle the time for the car to pick me up. The day of, the car company called to settle directions. The driver couldn’t find the place, and I had to walk down the road to find him. When I got in the car, he asked me where we are going. I had to pull out the invitation, because I didn’t know either. I arrived amidst a swirling throng of parents with children in costume. So I made it to the right place, but where do I go from there? I wandered about but could find no one I knew until someone from the Fulbright office showed up. He discovered we needed to go to the back of the building, as the guests. At that entrance, children dressed in military costume saluted me, and a group in priestly attire sang a traditional greeting song. The folks accompanied to my labeled easy chair at the front of an 800 seat auditorium. Absolute front row. Finally, I saw people I knew and they all came by to greet me as Guest of Honour. Volunteers delivered Mango juice, water and bisquits. Many joked about being patient for the evening.
The evening began with a slideshow annual report, with a movie-worthy voice-over that highlighted the accomplishments of the teachers and administration and some about the students. This was followed immediately by two hours of hundreds of children from various campuses of the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Schools in hundreds and hundreds of costumes. They paraded across the stage briefly, danced bharatanatayam in extended sequences, playing out simple scenes of life in Southern India to pre-recorded voice-overs all accompanied by loud music, extremely loud, music. Extremely dramatic. Throughout there was much talking and applauding in the audience, though mostly I could not hear because of the incessant music. At times the doorways were jammed with families watching their children.
At the end, the student MCs invited on stage the Chief Guest, myself and school officials as parents and children headed out of the auditorium in a great wave. The chief guest, a respected dancer, and I were each introduced and given gifts. We each took our turn speaking to the thinning audience, who showed much appreciation for our little speeches.
I walked out of the auditorium to many thank yous for my ‘Education is about creativity’ speech. We wandered about to find my driver and car, who wasn’t sure before the program whether he was supposed to stay and wait for me.
Would you like to know probably the most captivating thing about this one evening’s experience? This is the single event I have attended anywhere and at any time where the MCs most accurately pronounced my name and outlined my accomplishments with great accuracy.