Why do we need film songs in school events?
The time when one goes though primary and High school students is a very impressionable one. Any seed that is sown, sprouts immediately. That soft ground does not know whether the seed would grow to yield good fruit or a bad one. Their minds are like soft surfaces that hold the impression of whatever is thrown at them, without any discrimination. It is impossible to undo their memories formed during this time.
Hence the atmosphere at home and school have to be really conducive for children to grow up. They develop taste, aptitude and inclination towards good things at this age. More than annual exams shaping their personality and future, annual day organized by the school shapes their senses even better. Annual events showcase the talent of students, thus making the day extremely special for them. Their joy and happiness knows no bounds on those days. Their true interests are on display on that very special day.
Sports and extracurricular activities are also held on the day. Those who are good at scoring, need not be great sportspersons too. Someone who does not score well, may be a good player who can earn everyone’s respect and admiration on that day by winning prizes! This annual school day often showcases many talents of students such as music, singing, art etc. But a few schools conduct annual days for name sake, creating only scoring students and leaving behind the creative side of students in total darkness. Students in such schools live a creatively dead life almost.
The cultural event in the annual day gets most prominent space. Children’s talent of singing, dancing and other forms of creativity is expressed on this day. But in many schools, the dance and song routine is failing to fulfil its very objective. Teachers believe dance is about tapping foot to recorded film songs. Hence in most schools film songs make for most of the entertainment programme on the annual day.
This does not mean film songs should be dismissed completely. There are many ways in which film songs can reach students today. Children watch them on social media, on television and on phones too. They try to imitate them. But the film songs hardly have any literary significance. Film songs may have counter effect on children since most of them are written with adults in mind. Imitating this would mean children are losing their innocence at very early age.
In the past, school events would have poems and folk songs to which the students either sang together or danced. These songs that could be seen only in text books, used to be children’s favourite after they sing and dance to them at school events. Since they used to listen to them for more than two weeks in order to prepare for the school event, they would be happy listening to them without any pressure of scoring marks at the end of this. Other would join them while they learnt the dance and every one would enjoy humming along.
They would then know about the poets who wrote these songs or the meaning of the folk song. They could imagine a village when they listened to a folk song. They would become familiar with hunting songs, kolata songs, varieties of folk literature etc thus understanding the social context described by the song. Their perception of the society would be shaped through these. Even dramas should be employed to introduce history and folk literature to children. This would lead to their personality development.
Unfortunately, in the recent times school events are reduced to just shaking a leg to cinema songs and enacting scenes from films. Looks like even teachers find it easy to make children imitate cinema since they can follow without any hassles. More than this, the new generation of teachers have no clue about poems and folk songs. Most convents and English schools have this issue since remain distant from the culture of the land. Which is why they make children dance to ready cinema songs. Even parents don’t bother much about this and in fact feel proud about their children perfectly imitating the actors. How does one create a sense of pride about culture in children when this is the fact? If children appreciate double entendre at an age when they can barely understand it, how do they grow as adults?
Media reports suggest the education department has sent a circular stating no film songs should be used in school events, and this is a highly appreciable move. Let the students choose what they want to do in college events. But at a time when they are still innocent, they should not develop a taste for crass. Parents have to stand by the institutes and government in this case, for the sake of their children. They need to understand that our culture has to be safeguarded through our songs that reflect the soil. We also need to protect folk songs and poems from being lost. Else, a day may not be very far when film songs may gain an entry into Kannada text books.
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ECI website faces outage amid vote counting in Jharkhand, Maharashtra
New Delhi: Election Commission of India’s official results website ‘results.eci.gov.in’ has reportedly experienced a technical outage on Saturday morning, at a time when India closely watches the high-stakes Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly poll battle.
Visitors visiting the site were met with non-functional links and a generic “counting in progress” message, leaving them without updated election data. The ECI has not issued an official explanation for the disruption.
Vote counting, which began at 8 a.m. with postal ballots, is underway for 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and 81 in Jharkhand. Early trends suggest a lead for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, currently ahead in 141 seats, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is leading in 96. In Jharkhand, the BJP-led NDA is ahead in 43 seats, while the ruling JMM-led alliance is trailing with leads in 33 constituencies.
Additionally, counting is underway for 48 assembly bypolls across 13 states and two parliamentary seats, Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala.
