Lenin Babu

ANNE WITH AN E (web series) …. May I unwrap the gift box for you? Don’t miss the first episode of season-1 of this web series being streamed on Netflix. This is my most important recommendation. It is adapted from the children’s classic novel ‘Anne of green gabbles’  by Lucy Maud Montgomery set in eighteenth-century Canada. If you want to unwrap the gift yourself, read no further. I am attempting to just unwrap the gift box and leave the gift to be explored by you. An elderly woman Marella, with her elder brother Mathew, lives in a house called ‘Green gabbles’. Both are unmarried with a heart of gold. Marella’s body language is quick and brief as if she is running away to conceal a softer side from the sliding mask. she is as mechanical and precise as a clock in her daily routine. She seems to feel it as methodical, converting most actions in her way into a procedure. she is like a parrot in an open cage not trying to venture out of the self-imposed confines. Mathew’s body language is a bit relaxed, occasionally puffing a pipe while warming his stretched legs beside a fireplace inside the house. He is briefer in conversation than Marella, yet coveys his feelings precisely with minimum muscle movements. He is like a parrot in an open cage who occasionally bathe in fresh air and sun to return quickly into the cage for his sister. These two civilized siblings, with a few domesticated animals for company, live on a serene island, called 'Prince Edward island'. Anne is an outspoken orphan girl. she is eleven years of age, with a tortured spirit in an asylum in the tempestuous mainland. She is seldom left untormented by peers for her ugly looks and her queer way of spinning out stories. She is often sent out to foster homes to look after younger children, where she was never treated humanely. She longs to belong. The poor girl takes solace in her wings of imagination of being a princess and so on, to mask the tormenting reality. As Mathew later remarks about Anne, ‘she talks a mile a minute ‘  with a splendid poetic vocabulary she possesses. she savors nature like none other. The web series deals with the circumstances of these three characters becoming a family and the journey thereafter. With new bonds, comes a new fire of pain and ecstasy that broadens the narrow cup of their lives. The new bond brings with it brief chaos before settling into a new order, which is more fulfilling than the earlier one at the ‘Green gabbles’. The air of the topiary acquires a shade of forestry at the 'Green gabbles', with new lives entering and enriching the lives of these characters. Though the tale revolves around these central characters, it throws light on the changing times in late eighteenth-century Canada, changing relations between different ethnic groups, relations between different classes of people, their prejudices, friendships, reconciliations, agony, helplessness, resolve, and so on. To put it in one phrase, this web series is ‘full of life ’. The actors are marvelous, to say the least.Though it is set in Canada, as Anne puts it, this web series makes us realize, " As humans, we are alike in so many ways".Don’t be surprised if it rekindles some dormant springs in your heart, which I believe IT WILL. *** Lenin Babu ***

Even after watching the three parts in this series, I still didn’t get how these supposedly super brains are contributing to the country. It’s depressing to know that even IIT students don’t have a choice in studying what they think they are good at. The confession of a professor about the non-correlation of what he teaches and what students need in the market to contribute begs for an urgent review of the system. Another confession of a student that opportunities are very few in core jobs also needs to be thought about by the policymakers. Some movies like ‘chhichhore’ have caught glimpses of the inside life, making most of the things shown in this series familiar. So far, I have not found any major differences between IIT and other ‘normal’ engineering colleges elsewhere in the country. In the forthcoming episodes, I hope to see how these students approach and solve some of the real problems, the resources they have, the bonding between teachers and students, etc. I would also like to see how professors frame syllabus, what interaction they have with industries and how it helps them in inspiring students to scale higher, the challenges they are facing, the changes they have seen in the various generation of students, how they influence other institutes and how they get influenced, etc. I would also like to know how accreditation like NAAC is affecting IITs.