The prying mind had rested in the opening of communication session at Saturday. It was yet another new, interesting, inimitable and useful activity held by Vrushali Mam, administration, Id Animation & Arts Studio School. Similar to other faculties, she does not only handle her department but also holds student’s communication lessons.
But my heart was not in the amusement. It was announced that this is the
Last communication session to be held and I can see sheer disappointment on mam’s face, all because us.
The story goes like this – Communication sessions were initiated when we started our animation course, one and a half year ago. We were doing an assortment of activities to enhance our communication skills all held my Vrushali mam. We learned to speak. We learned to listen. We learned what teamwork is and that is why we perform well as a team now. We gathered the courage to present ourselves in front of unknown people and sharpened ourselves with the language of communication world, English. There was always something new in the sessions and every time it was a surprise to attend. I remember the excitement and a bit of a fear I used to feel before the sessions. I myself was a very introvert and a bit reclusive kind of person and I know how much I opened up because of these sessions. I never had that kind of stage exposure before. I never spoke about myself in front of unknown people before and now I know that I can do all of it confidently. We were being trained, till now, with an additional and a very obligatory weapon called Communication.
But as our other workload increased with the training, the frequency of these sessions decreased. We started being very busy and gave these sessions second priority to what we were doing. We were not paying much attention to the significant involvement in this process. The assignments were not completed on time or abandoned totally by us. To some extent we evaded these practices, growing heavy with the work which was already sitting on our head. Many a times, Mam pushed us and tried to convey the importance of communication and many a times we fell down. On the other hand, mam was finding new and interesting ways to teach and improve our communication but we were not ready ourselves to get them. She researched a lot; she made new assignments which would have been of help. We followed them but again ignored some of her efforts. It was like someone was trying to feed us the cake of knowledge and we were not accepting it. We were not coming on time to class and we were taking her words lightly. We were not respecting her constant endeavors. That is why Mam was tired and decided to give up and to stop the wasted, unaccounted efforts.
But if I go behind the psychology of this approach towards the sessions and towards Mam, I will never come to the conclusion that we don’t respect Mam as such. Yes, we are mistaken to take it lightly and didn’t feel the tension and pressure towards the sessions. We were more opened up with Mam. We behaved more free & friendly, and that is why we had a soft corner over there. Somehow our mentality had shaped with ease and intrepidness. But we didn’t realize her efforts towards the sessions. Maybe all of this sounds a bit inconsistent, but that’s what, I think, the reality is. We never did this intentionally, but the mistake is done.
In this Last session we realized our mistake. And for the oil in fire, I came late. Mam has been close to tears when she spoke this out at last. It was obvious for her to be disappointed and to get irritated. I sat there horrified, stunned and with a flame of guilt in my happy stomach. I realized that if you are not respecting the deeds one is doing, then you don’t respect the person itself. We never meant to do that. But the harm has been done and other, junior, students are also going to suffer because of us. They will not get the fruits of these sessions that we, to some measures, received. All I wanted then was to convince Mam to continue those sessions at least for the innocents. Why should they undergo the distressing consequences because of us. Why they have to be deprived of this important learning when we know that they cannot survive in the industry without the communication skills.
I am sorry (I know I said it thousand times before…….but still…) for what happened and really hope that she will continue the sessions, with or without us.
