Though once again, elation is rather overstating it. But much, much better, in all sorts of ways. I went to see Yogi, as much to reassure him that I was fine as anything else. But he was also able to direct me to Room 11, in A block, where I would be able to get some printing done (and thus escape having to go to Reception, the other place where such things are handled, which sometimes is fine, and sometimes is completely rammed with people all jostling for attention, like an airport in some sort of crisis. Room 11 is, I believe, some sort of IT centre for the college (though it doesn’t really look like it.) But at least I was able to have a reasonably calm conversation with the man there, to send him the files I needed to be printed, and to have them done there and then.
That done, I could prepare myself for a lesson! This morning, I was to be teaching a lesson on spoken English. It was, so far as I understood, not to a single class, but to volunteers. It began at 10.30, so I was told. At least, that was when I was there. And more or less on time, there was Reshma, one of my cast… but no-one else. And then a group of girls drifted in, again, most of whom I knew from the play. So we formed some chairs into a circle… which then had to be expanded, as more arrived. Then more. Then more. So that, by the time they had all got there, there must have been about forty of them. (Though some then drifted out again, both then and at various times throughout the lesson. I can’t say whether it was some sort of voting with their feet gesture, or whether they realised they should be somewhere else, or what, because none of them said a word – they just went.
But the ragged beginning did mean we lost a lot of time, and together with the fact that there were still (despite the absconders) quite a lot of them there, so we never got past what I had intended to be merely the first, introductory exercise. I explained, as I have done to other groups before, that we were there to speak English, and I got them all to say one thing, which was to ask me a question each, in turn. Which I then answered. And as I like to talk, and there were a lot of questions to get through, that took the entire lesson. So not really much of an exercise in speaking. But very enjoyable, with, gratifyingly, lots of laughter.
I had thought this to be a one-off – I certainly had not been told any different – but discovered later that it was to be a daily class, a sort of special extra (and maybe before their normal timetable, which would explain the ragged start.) And that they would receive a special certificate for so attending. All fine by me, as it gives me the chance to do the other activities, and then some, that I had sort of planned. But will require a far more rigorous attitude to registering them… including their time-keeping!
Rehearsal came in the afternoon. It would normally have been my day off to run Chess Club, but after yesterday’s debacle, I was determined to get back on track. So I got Chhatra to look after whoever might turn up for chess (only three, so not arduous) while I ran the rehearsal at the other end of the room. Pranita was missing again – illness this time, she told me (or rather Aashish), but everyone else turned up on time, and we got a lot done. Some simultaneous rehearsal, with Paris and Capulet, and Nurse and Juliet. And then one of my favourite scenes, with the family row, in which Bikram made a very menacing Capulet. All of which cheered me up considerably.
