Sunday, July 02, 2006

Population "lessons" in Grade 8.

Typically, class 7,8,9 and 10 are the grades where the biology class is more "interesting" than any other lessons, for the "boys". But this lesson on "economics, biology and phsychology" is something that my classmates and i will never forget, long after the exams. And this learning came from...er... a history [his-story?] subject teacher.

Class 6 , during my school days, was the time my fellow mates [strictly, BOYS] and I were on a "discovery" path, finishing off every article on the 3 letter word that closely sounds like "vex".... but on our own. In class 7, this taboo'd topic came out in the "open" during a chemistry class. The "acid test" brought the boys together - Blue Litmus paper turns Red when dipped in Acid[BRA]!!When the chemistry teacher came up with this short form to keep us from forgetting, some guys tried to "act" as if they've never heard of the "short form". One of them [Class topper, but no trace of real "knowledge"!] even had a full fledged discussion with the teacher using the short form a number of times, in the process. Some last benchers [like my pals and i] had the grin on our faces. We thought that even the teacher was embarassed. The teacher promptly changed the topic of discussion.

That class contributed the most to the "social education" of the boys in my class - After the class, as soon as the teacher stepped out, the boys had a mindblowing "group discussion" guided by the last benchers! Then on we were on the discovery path as a "group", with the learnings of each other being shared!

But this "history" class is the high point on our "social journey". The class gave us "new insights" to think about. On a hot [no pun intended] afternoon in school, this history teacher decided to get the students' attention. But with a question like "what is the reason behind India's overpopulation?" he put us back to sleep [try to remember an exciting history/civics class in school? keep trying!].

With no answer coming his way, he decides to give it a shot himself. His explanation goes - On the 1st of every month, the head of the family has a "heavy wallet". So on the first saturday of the month, he takes his wife [and kids] to a movie and an expensive restaurant. They have a great time , sumptuous food and head home and quickly fall asleep. On the next saturday, with a less heavy wallet, he takes his family to another movie but this time they go to a less expensive restaurant. With a heavy tummy, they head home to hit the sacks soon. [Remember, this story was set in the Coimbatore of the last decade of the 1900's]. All of us were warmed up by now.

The 3rd saturday, with 2 more weeks to pull through before the next pay day, he decides to take his family to the "park". They gaze at the crowd while having some "kadalai" [groundnut!] and "popcorn". The family then heads back home, make their dinner, eat and sleep off. Now all the class guys were truely awake.

The final saturday of the month, the guy is left with little money. He and his wife decide to stay at home. The dinner is made by 7 pm. Both of them are watching the saturday evening movie. The dinner is taken in by 8:30 PM. And then, ...... they have some fun, out of boredom! [exactly his words!]. This, he said is the reason for India's overpopulation crisis!!!!

By now all of us [atleast all boys] were grinning! "All of us" had successfully passed the "social education" test.

Easily, the best "history" class we had so far.....

P.S The guys who read "Freakanomics" will find this particular reasoning very familiar!

13 comments:

Abhinav Vinayakh Shankar said...

Yeah, I remember learning this somewhere....Not sure where.. "Leading causes for population explosion in India - No recreation other than sex"!!!

Vetti Guy said...

dei...really funny post....i can relate to almost everything you have written here....this kind of thing happened for us in 11th standard in Sanskrit (of all subjects)...there was this poem where Krishna is apparently staring at Radha's breasts that were like fully-ripe melons ( these were the exact words, I swear).....you should have seen the teacher's face when we got to this stanza....she was doing her best to skip through to the next verse and we guys were trying to ask as many doubts on this stanza as possible.....really hilarious.:-))

Keep posting regularly.

Sumi said...

Procreation for recreationkk kk! way to go! hope i get to read more posts of yours!

Anonymous said...

Good one Sir!!
keep 'em coming..Good luck

Ashika said...

LOL! Am sure neither the papa nor the mama were Scorpios!! (Not that I have first hand experience)But I sure know that none of my married (some unmarried too!!)scorpio friends *vex* out of boredom!!

Wanderlust said...

no wonder u topped ur class!

Anonymous said...

dood...any biology class experiences...wud b funny

Anonymous said...

Disgusting dude . Tell me, u did'nt find anything more important other than sex to start with.

Karthikeyan (KK) said...

People with names - This post was meant to "refresh" your school memories.

Anonymous - So, if i had a post on "reservation", another on "issues of national importance" and slip one in like the currect post in between, then probably the idea would be more "acceptable"!!!

Ashwini said...

Hey KK.....ur fundoo chemistry teacher and her hilarious abbreviations .....LOL....sure brought back memories :)

Anonymous said...

I love your website. It has a lot of great pictures and is very informative.
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Anonymous said...

hey this is your schoolmate ...

who was the 7th std chem teacher ? ..not sure of the teacher.was it RM..but i would have remembered if something like this had happened..

and oo yeah the history master was perhaps the 10 std class teacher T rite.. i am not very sure..i vaguly remember this happening

Karthikeyan (KK) said...

Spot on Kamal ! That was "T" in class 10 ! It was a "civics" class!!