Skip to main content

To BEAT or not to BEAT!!!

 


In the year 2018, a well known print media put up an article whose headline was this - "88% of marginalised children beaten at school; 91% parents ok with it." It is called the 'CORPORAL PUNISHMENT' and comes into existence when a teacher picks up the extreme way of disciplining a student. I am sure most of us as teachers and as parents will disagree to this kind of behaviour and maybe few of us will be ok with using stricter ways of disciplining children both as parents and as teachers. Are you of the opinion that Sex Education should be a must at school or do you think otherwise? Have you ever come across the sensationalism of media personally? How was that experience? Or are you someone who would rather hang yourself before being caught in the claws of media? If you are wondering why I am putting up such questions, it's because during the week I came across a teacher who had been through all this and made me think more about it.

#LIFEGOALS - It's about a newly wed couple Merlin and Manikandan. Merlin is a teacher who comes from a family where her Mom, a hardcore believer in the lord who is against her decision of getting married to someone from the other caste. Thankfully for Merlin, she has a friendly environment at her school and is surrounded by well wishers. She wishes to make her Mom understand that her decision is right. On the other hand, her Mom refuses to even speak to her on phone. It is 3 days after her Registered Marriage that Merlin joins back her duty as a teacher. Merlin is then requested to go to a certain class as a substitute teacher. After a while, owing to a certain situation, Merlin slaps one of the students Cheziyan who goes unconscious immediately.

#STRENGTHS - Everyone in the School including the Principal are seen running hither and thither to make sure the boy is safe. The Principal, advises Merlin and her husband to go to some other place for a while and come back after things settle down a little. Though initially Manikandan wants to be there and make sure that things are getting back to normal, gradually he realises that it is going to be a huge issue because the kid lived with his single Mom who is an Auto Driver. Auto Drivers can be a dangerous Union of people. He takes Merlin and they get away from Chennai. But it is difficult for Merlin to absorb the fact that she had hit a kid, all of 10 years just for a small thing. So she decides to meet the child's mother come what may.

#FATALBLOWS - Things get ugly when Udhayan, Cheziyan's Uncle, an Auto Driver who is a communist at heart takes things into his hands and starts searching for Merlin frantically to make her pay for what happened to his nephew. And then there is the media intervention that makes us wonder if we are answerable to law and order or to the media itself. Like it is the most common thing to happen if a child gets slapped at school by a teacher. Amidst this commotion, the child slips away into coma stage. Unbelievable, right. How can a mere slap make someone go into coma? And unknowingly, we tend to start blaming Merlin for routing in her frustrations on a mere kid.

#GIVEAWAYS - Though there were elements that were untoward and unnecessary that were added maybe to spice up things that are already hot or to mirror a version of our own mindset to us. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece though and yet I could relate to every thought that Merlin had, the pain that Cheziyan's mother was going through, Udayan's restlessness in not being able to get to the teacher because of whom his nephew was in this state and Manikandan's helplessness in understanding what Merlin was going through all along. It also reflects how we as a society don't stop in judging people instantaneously and reason out things that go wrong.

I am sure all the teachers, parents and students out here wouldn't want to miss out on this little Tamil story I wrote about in #DigitalDabba on #AmazonPrime.

Merlin played by Radhika Prasidhha in Kuttram Kadithal

And about the questions I asked earlier, you don't have to answer me. Just give it a thought. And if you watch this movie, I am sure you will also think about those questions.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 TIPS TO MAKE JOURNALING A DAILY HABIT

Habits make us what we are. True that. Many of us are familiar and are probably experts at writing a Diary. In fact any one who has ever tried maintaining a diary at some point of our lives are all potential writers according to me. A diary is the only place where we can put out our thoughts without deliberation, where we can shout out loud about our inhibitions, where we can mention our fantasies without hesitation. I have too many lovely memories of writing a diary. My day would start and end with it. And one thing that would always find place in it on any given day was my love for Prem. Had to stop the habit as it turned out that people in my family got suspicious that I would someday elope with a guy named Salman Khan. I know, you must be having a laugh at it, but back then it was a little serious, not to forget that I was just 15 then. I never got back to that habit again. Yet, he remains my eternal heart throb till date.  Thanks to the advent of technology and our friendly so...
Post a Comment
Read more

A sneak peak into DIGITAL HR

  What is it that comes to your mind when you hear / read about HR ? People. Strategies. Recruitment. Talent Acquisition. Pay-rolling. Appraisals. And maybe much more. What is it that comes to your mind when you hear / read about Digital HR ? #Trending , thanks to the lockdown. The next big thing. A lot of learning and up skilling perhaps. As I was going through the current digital HR tools which are definitely going to make a long term impact, I came across few Digital skills which we need to be aware of if we are routing for a future in HR. Welcome to #GuruGyan , a place where you can find my insights and opinions about HR trends and mishaps and their impact on organisations. I will be sharing few of the Digital HR skills that I came across and where and how they can be put to use. So, hop on. Whether it’s trying to manage work on cloud, sharing information across mobiles, tablets and other gadgets, engaging people across different social media platforms, networking globally via...
Post a Comment
Read more

Myth Bangers about INVESTING

  I am sure you must have heard this as a child many a times. That the best way to get rid of your financial troubles and bring prosperity in your lives is to worship Goddess Lakshmi on Fridays. There is even a name for this Goddess - VAIBHAV Lakshmi . Though I do not believe in this superstition, I didn't want to take chances. So I decided to talk about my experiences related to finances on a Friday with #flirtyFridays . Maybe that's my way of worshipping the Goddess. For all those KoolKanyas out there, whether you are a student, a working professional or an industry expert, this is about what I went through before I took the plunge into investing. Every one might have a different reason, a different story and even a different goal. But what binds us is that we are in this together as women. If you have read my earlier posts, you already know how, when and why I started saving. Today, how about I share a few myths and how I banged them before I started investing? Read on. #MYT...
Post a Comment
Read more