As teacher educators we travel around the country doing workshops. Sometimes, we may fly- when we get a bigger budget- but mostly we go by train, and sometimes by bus.
Actually I enjoy train travel- nothing like corner seat and a view, the shifting landscape, my sketchbook and the old schoolroom Nataraj HB pencil….
Every child in Karnataka knows the popular folk poem – “Punnyakoti”. This poem has run through the oral tradition of the land and the people. It has a very simple moral- Punnyakoti the cow was set upon by a tiger who wanted to eat her. The tiger was hungry, but they came to an understanding. Punnyakoti asked the hungry tiger to wait while she hurried home to make arrangements for her two calves who were going to be orphaned soon. The tiger was still waiting skeptically when Punnyakoti returned to the rocky scrub. With complete submission, Punnyakoti said that she was ready to be eaten as she had done her duty for her two calves and left them safely with her neighbors. This made the tiger so ashamed that he changed his mind and vanished into the forest.
This is a recitative and very descriptive poem- it echoes the hills and rocks and lush fields of the dramatic Deccan landscape, the blue skies and the startling greens of the forests.
Children love to dramatize this poem using masks and puppets.
