Civics is not a subject really . . .

I never understood the civics which was taught to me in school. I used to secretly love history but never civics. My teachers would hum lines from the text and we would pretend that we are underlining the important passages which come in the board exams. All those rights. The preamble. When teachers notice closed eyes gaping mouths oozing saliva they would come up snippets of General Knowledge. I am talking about class 9,10 when we were begining to develop some political insight. We were extremely patriotic in a filmy way. Did not know what right wing meant or what what left wing meant.

At that time we were not aware of an election commision. We could owe our awareness now to the numerous news channels. Good old Doordarshan never mentioned about them. Had they mentioned it would have been discussed over dinner. Snapshots of Mr Deve Gowda taking ten winks together on television stir my mind when I think of it. Coming back to civics - my suggestion is that there should be practical work in civics as opposed to drowsy classes. Students will stop shaking in their knees if civics is before english literature in the afternoon.

The practical work should give case studies like this - considering the current political scenario.
The Congress party has 10 allies, BJP 10 also there are a bunch of other regional parties angry over something or the other. Which of these parties would stick to their original allegiances ?
If this subject is taught at a time when elections are not on. The title of the project should be this - before the elections in 2009 the following was the coalition structure, please buy another notebook specifically to keep track of the different fronts - no stupid not the left front. I am talking about the third, fourth, fifth ... fronts (remember arithmetic progression !!) . Please go to the kabadi wala if possible and get all the old newspapers scourge for information and list all the parties with the date and the front they belonged to. If possible also add ( for humorous purposes ) why they were in that front. The conclusion of the project should include the actual results of the elections - change of alliances and comments.

For repeaters the topic would be fairly easy. Mapping political promises to actual work done.

Marks would obviously be awarded for correctness in prediction, hadwriting and how many colours were used in the report.

In awe of Eastwood

Recently I saw two acclaimed movies of last year - Gran Torino and Changeling. I watched Gran Torino sometime back and I loved them. Yesterday I happened to watch Changeling, but it completely slipped out of my mind that it was also directed and written by Clint Eastwood. Both the movies have such distinct styles and they had not been released after a huge gap. Gran Torino starred the man himself and literally carried the movie on his shoulders even at such an advanced age. Changeling was an inspiring movie without chest thumping dialoges but neat. When the titles suggested that it was Clint Eastwood who directed it I was amazed.
The other day I was watching an episode of Entourage - a 'dramedy' revolving around a movie star and his travails in Big Bad Hollywood along with his friends - slick in its approach and stylish to the hilt. The protagonist shoots a movie along with a German director and a particular scene required multiple retakes. The Hero( a very patient guy ) goes crazy, insists that the director explain what was wrong with the scene. The director replies that the hero is being himself which is not required for movie but he has to play the character written for him. Then the director says that any movie is a directors baby. For an actor it is just another performance, they go into the next project without any problems - whereas for a director a movie it is a matter of years of thinking crystallised. So no movie belongs actually to an actor but to the director. Of course this applies only to masters of the art.
Gran Torino and Changeling reflects this very argument. Clint Eastwood is such a master at story telling, not belonging to any league but his own