`Stuffy' professors and popular culture
MEENAKSHI THAPAN
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Amitabh, a critical component of such culture, becomes part of the domain of intellectual inquiry
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FROM BEING called `usually stuffy' teachers who lost their cool (The Hindu, November 8) to being accused of `darting about like teenagers to get Amitabh Bachchan's autographs' (Hindustan Times, November 9), Delhi university teachers are being projected as having lost their heads over a matinee idol at a recent special convocation held at the University of Delhi.
This clearly indicates how imagery and symbolism have attained a premium amongst our young writers at least in the English newspapers. In their minds, the image of a serious, no-nonsense professor, preferably grey haired, with stooping shoulders and smudged spectacles, with nothing but contempt for `stars' like Big B, is perhaps in accordance with erudition, brilliance and perfection.
How terrible that the professors failed to impress because they `lost their cool' with their childhood idol in their midst! The image has gone awry and that portends disaster for young people because they would like to see the image intact.
The image, as the old cliché goes, is not the reality. Professors read, write and talk to students, both inside and outside the classroom. Students are critical to teachers' existence as without being questioned, engaging in a discussion, or talking to students, teachers remain closed off, isolated, incomplete, and academically dead.
If teachers are stuffy, boring individuals with no understanding of, or engagement with music, literature or popular culture, or with contemporary events, they will certainly be unable to communicate with students as they will be ivory tower figures, truly boring and rather pathetic in their self absorbed academic pursuits.
Heartbeat of a nation
Popular culture is the heartbeat of a nation and, as a teacher, I make a conscious attempt to understand and engage with this culture at different moments, in various ways, whether by reading academic papers on the subject, watching films, listening to music, gazing at film posters and fathoming their messages, and always seeking to understand the nuances, texts and sub-texts of what makes a particular actor, film or piece of music popular, meaningful or simply out of it all.
Amitabh Bachchan is undoubtedly a critical element of this popular culture as he captured the imagination of at least two, if not more, generations of Indians with his presence, voice and embodied presentations in different genres of the visual medium.
Last year, the Department of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics organised a two-day workshop on filmi sociology where the focus was on contemporary cinema and significantly, one of the papers presented was on Amitabh Bachchan.
Perhaps this disappoints the young gatekeepers of academia who may think that we should concern ourselves with more serious affairs. We take cinema as seriously as we document modern institutions, contemporary and global events, and rural/urban lives and practices.
Mr. Amitabh Bachchan is therefore not just a film star but, by virtue of being a critical component of the popular culture of this nation, becomes part of the domain of intellectual inquiry. His receiving an honorary degree does not lower the significance of the degree. Surely we all understand he has not attained it for his academic credentials but for his consummate skills as a professional actor and for his contribution to Indian cinema.
(The writer is Professor and Head, Department of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi)
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