The Merchants of Chennai
A few days ago, I went to lunch with a former work team of mine. As it happens, the members of the team are all from India, and we chose an Indian restaurant for the occasion. Much of the conversation was light-hearted banter about foods and gardens; of course, being at an Indian restaurant, I could get all the explanations of the southern Indian cuisine being served (I passed on the mango mousse, which I learned isn’t really a dish native to India, anyway). As we talked, the conversation moved to the education systems. Sreedhar explained to me that, in his school, in all but the Tamil class, only English was allowed in the classroom. Tamil is the native language of Chennai , Sreedhar’s home city. He had gone to a Catholic school there, and related, still apparently with some sense of horror, of how he had had to study The Merchant of Venice for two years. I asked what he remembered of the book, and mostly he remembered the book’s cover sheet, which was in cyan. Shabbir laughe...
