A school to remember Malayalam writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer with 52 story telling sessions in 52 classrooms

The Hindu

2 days ago

The students of SNDP HSS, Udayamperoor, near Kochi city, are set to remember the legendary Malayalam writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer in a rather unique way.
As many as 52 students from Classes V to X in as many divisions will tell a 10-minute-long story each of the late writer in their respective classrooms before the class hours on Monday (July 7), two days after the writer's death anniversary on July 5. This year, it happened to be on Saturday, a holiday.
'We have come across Basheer memorial day being observed by students getting dressed up as his characters. That hardly do any good in terms of getting familiarised with the writer's works. That's why we came up with this idea of telling his stories,' said school Headteacher Deepa S. Narayanan.
Not a one-off event
The Basheer commemoration will not be a one-off event either, but rather part of a novel initiative named 'Vidyalayam Kadha Parayunnu' (A school telling stories), which got under way on June 19 coinciding with the Reading Day and will last through this academic year. Under this programme, the first 10 minutes before the classes will be dedicated to story telling every single working day. The school is using the extra 30 minutes added to the school hours this year for the programme.
'This way, all 2,500 students in Classes V to X in all 52 divisions will get to tell a story in their classrooms. Students' roll numbers will be followed in story telling. They will be given the freedom to choose the stories that will fit into 10 minutes. In between, teachers will also tell stories, which could even be a portion from a famous novel,' said O.V. Saju, school Principal.
The story telling will not be restricted to students and teachers. For instance, the school arranged a session last Friday when grandmothers of students came together for a story telling session. One of them, Leelamma Cherian, even recited a poem she had penned. The school plans to assemble parents interested in narrating stories as well.
'We are looking at roping in people from all walks of life. The concept being that anyone with a passion can tell stories and not necessarily big literary names alone,' said Smitha Karun, a Malayalam faculty member. In fact, last year, she organised a similar story telling programme in her class, which was then videographed and shared in WhatsApp group of parents. Obviously, the parents were delighted to see their children addressing a full classroom.
The school is now mulling over similar video documentation of Vidyalayam Kadha Paraynnu sessions. Also, the student writes down the moral of the story they tell on the blackboard, which is being recorded in a notebook. The possibility of publishing it as a book at the end of the academic year is also being explored.