Every step you take has an impact on your life. One such ‘step’ or initiative taken by our English teacher succeeded in throwing light on creative thinking and vivid personae.
A sultry atmosphere had just set in, when our English teacher strode through one of the doors that offered ingress to the classroom. As he assumed his position on the podium, all eyes were fixated on the bundled sheets he held in his hand. On its dispensation, we realised that an unusual ‘non-PCME’ assignment laid at our disposal. The task was to pen our thoughts on the picture of a footprint.
A crowded buzz soon trickled down to a light murmur, mingled with the occasional sounds of scribbling as eager minds took to work. Once everybody put their pens down, the sheets were collected and filtered. The assignment paved way to uncover the hidden poets, scientists, detectives and artists of our class, as the variety of opinions built an atmosphere of bewilderment.
The plethora of outlooks were broadly categorised into five different groups.
‘They are the footprints of a hound’, Sherlock exclaimed! And so did others. Analytical minds deduced the size, gender, fitness and age with just one look at the footprint. Talks of carbon footprint and video games were also included.
Interest in mythology and epics was highlighted. References to Lord Krishna’s and Lord Hanuman’s imprints formed a major part.
A few of them addressed the philosophical aspect. As time and tide wait for no man, one must strive to leave behind ideal ‘footprints’ for others to follow. The legacy of a person is the only thing that unhinges oblivion.
The best of the lot were out-of-the-box thinkers. An intriguing poem and profound puns were at the top of the favourites list. Interestingly, some were able to view the footprint from a different perspective. They manifested as to how the picture also looks like a hunchbacked woman with a long braid.
Notably, it attained its primary goal which was to remind us of our childhood and hence, correlating it with the poem, ‘To the Foot from its Child’ by Pablo Neruda.
Thus, the exercise equipped us to interpret the poem from distinct stand-points and exposed the concealed adroitness of every student.
