Thursday 1 December 2016

ALOHOMORA TO A MAGICAL EDUCATION – A COMMENT ON ICSE’S HARRY POTTER CONNECTION

Avada Kedavra”, the boy before me screamed at the top of his lungs, pointing an ugly black stick at me, while trying to look tough and intimidating by gritting his teeth, and bringing his brows together. Precisely at the same moment, I carefully pronounced the word, “Expelliarmus,” smiling at my own realistic looking “wand” jutting out towards my opponent. And then, we imagined our spells meet and collide mid- way against each other, each of us groaning and yelling to appear more intense than the other…

Among numerous memories of my childhood at a convent school, this memory is seemingly the most beautiful one I have. Harry Potter was not just a children’s book to us. Despite being restricted to CBSE course- books by teachers and parents alike, Harry Potter was a way of life. Perhaps, that is why I felt a tinge of envy mingled with sheer joy when ICSE announced the addition of these beloved works of literature in their syllabus. Amidst all the hullaballoo of demonetization and woeful stories of crime screaming at the headlines, this news came as an escape into a different kind of reality- a beautiful one.

Being a book lover ever since I was introduced to Stevenson’s Treasure Island in fifth standard, I always wanted all those novels lining up the shelves in our school library to replace our boring course- books. I wanted them to be more than a means to “kill time” when you’ve got an hour to kill. I wanted them to be read out loud in classes so that everyone else could see how much wisdom these pieces of literature can promise to give. Sadly, the time we had got wasted away in repetitive textbooks that restricted the art of reading to the prescribed syllabus.

Yet somewhere along that time, I must say I did gather much. Not everyone was a foe of literature, after all. My heroes came in the form of an immensely knowledgeable English teacher and a generous librarian who would allow me to take home classics like Ivanhoe, and The Three Musketeers while my classmates fought for The Hardy Boys. And this is precisely why one can rely on me saying that ICSE’s latest inclusion is a magical one, literally.

The Harry Potter books are not a mere series of children’s books. After all, they inspired an entire generation to take up reading as a regular exercise rather than a hobby. And who would deny the power these books have had in building better people around the world, who are more open minded and loving than others; who understand that bigotry, discrimination and bullying are not cool anymore? And this accounts for my joyfulness at ICSE’s decision, hoping that teachers across schools would take charge to make the students understand what J. K. Rowling wrote between the lines of Harry’s magical adventures. I want the teachers of this country to declare it to their pupils that Draco Malfoy calling Hermione a mudblood represents all those punitive minds around them in the society who discriminate against their fellow beings on the basis of caste, and who at all costs must be shunned.


And most of all, I want the teachers to take this wonderful chance to tell the young readers through a little boy’s story to always seek happiness and love, even when the times are overshadowed with misery. What I want this welcome change in students’ curriculum to do is to make a young boy look up at a wise old mentor not with the fear of the dreaded cane showing in his eyes, but with the hope of finding happiness even in the darkest of times, by simply remembering to turn on the lights. 

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