Students perform in the Bengali cultural event at La Martiniere for Girls last week Picture by Gautam Bose
A Class VI student returned home from a rehearsal in school and took out Sukumar Ray’s Abol Tabol from her bookshelf.
The book had been on her shelf for years but she had not picked it up until she took part in a production that included Ray’s poems.
La Martiniere for Girls organised a Bengali cultural evening last week and a week earlier, Indus Valley World School hosted an inter-school Bangla festival where students from 15 English-medium schools participated.
School events like these help kindle an interest in the language, said a teacher in one of the schools.
At La Martiniere for Girls, about 70 students from Classes VI to XII participated in the programme that showcased the contribution of women in Bengali literature and celebrated folk songs of Bengal.
At Indus Valley World School, 250 students from Classes III to IX participated in the Bangla festival, as part of which they attended a workshop on alpona and Rabindrasangeet and a quiz on Bengali cuisine.
“Interest in Bengali is on the wane and it is through these fun programmes that students unknowingly learn and develop an interest,” said Priyadarshinee Guha, vice-principal, Indus Valley World School.
At the end of the 90-minute programme at La Martiniere for Girls, a student said she wished she understood and appreciated the language more.
“A mother called to tell me that her daughter in Class VI has been reading Abol Tabol every day, something that she never did in so many years,” said Sumana Roy, Bengali teacher at La Martiniere for 25 years.
The school revived the programme after about a decade.
“The students understood the spirit of the programme and many of them are inspired to read more,” said Rupkatha Sarkar, principal, La Martiniere for Girls.
It is also a learning for Bangla teachers to make their classes interesting and fun, said Guha.
“Many teachers are caught in a time warp. They have forgotten how to make learning fun. We had an event where children listened to Rabindrasangeet, interpreted the songs and made a drawing based on their interpretation.”
Students who don’t speak Bengali participated, too.
Sangeeta Dudhoria encouraged her daughter, who studies in Class VII at Mahadevi Birla World Academy, to participate in the Bangla festival at Indus Valley World School.
“Living in Bengal, she should not only know the language but also the literature,” said Sangeeta.
With the breaking down of joint families, the onus is on schools to expose children to the arts and culture beyond academics, said Amita Prasad, director of Indus Valley World School.
“Education will be incomplete without the ability to appreciate art. Such a festival cuts across communities and language barriers and that is the objective,” said Prasad.