Ethiopian Experience is a simple realistic and romantic narration as the author tells else where and that too in the most straight forward manner, in first person is the experience of a young teacher in Ethiopia. It was a time when teachers from India were preferred everywhere abroad especially in the African Countries at the fag end of nineteen sixties to nineteen seventies.
The hero of this novelette Suresh, with his youthful enthusiasm and adventure impressed the members of the interview board and got selected as a teacher under the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia.

Thus he was suddenly thrown from a life of wants to luxury overnight.

With in a few minutes after landing Addis Abbaba. Suresh was confronted by a strange experience. Immediately he could smell the fragrance of a costly perfume and found himself with in the hands of a beautiful lady who imprinted a violent kiss on his very right cheek. Suresh was twenty five at the time, Grown from younger days with no parental care.

Because of youthful propensity he drifted himself into free sex for which he got chances in plenty and within reach on the foreign land.

He enjoyed sex with Damsels and Nymphs of his own profession in the school like Miss Irene and Miss Isabella. There beautiful men and women coming from far-off places became familiar in no time and indulge in sex with no taboo. Suresh did not bother about the customs of his own society. He was practically unconcerned with amorality and cultural standards.

A conventional reader who goes through these lines describing sex may even hesitate to proceed reading further. But the author boldly writes because it is necessitated the imaginary situation demanded by this kind of a novel. Sex is nothing but a natural instinct to most of the people of foreign countries and especially in the dark continent, Africa. For them sexual trespassing is only a behavioral pattern.

But to our relief the story gets a desirable turn at the most opportune moment when Rahel and her mother Sophia came into contact with Suresh. Rahel was enamoured of Suresh to such an extent that she thought of marring him. But Sophia was not agreeable to the proposal on the ground of religious customs. Suresh who was at that time very much dejected happens to meet Lulu a poor boy whom he liked as a brother. The intimacy with Lulu had a magical effect in bringing back peace and harmony to the disturbed mind of Suresh. Together they enjoyed the beauty of Blue Nile which was still then a part of their study of Geography. From the moment on wards Nile to him was felt a part of his life. Nostalgic memories rushed up in his mind. A time of conflict followed within Suresh and he decided to leave the land of Haily Salasy. The timely help from Mekonnen gave him strength to face difficulties.
He came back to his native village and took up the old profession of teaching life went on smoothly almost according to his expectation. But he had his own dreams about marriage and well settled life.

All his dreams were assured when he got married to Susan a beautiful lady quite suitable to him.

During the following days life was celebration of joy and happiness to him.

He was able to realize the unexplored fathoms of pleasures of life with a woman. He was fully convinced that sex is not everything in marriage. But at the same time it is an unavoidable necessity of living beings to produce the offsprings to continue the race for which the husband and wife are made for each other. Mean while his wife Susan had a period of mental suppression and adopted obscure methods of treatment. To add to the calamity Susan finds out a letter send by Rahel to Suresh. In secret this suspicion aggravated the situation which did not continue for long. Finally because of the essential goodness in life the tragical trends turned the way to a happy ending.

This tiny novel proclaims to the world the indefinite glory of love as the guiding spirit of happy marriage and not sex as erroneously understood by many. In short this may be the reason for the world wide acceptance of this offspring novel.
The readability combined with realistic expression is the unique attraction of the masterly creation of this novelette.

Alappuzha
Prof: P.G.Balakrishnan Nair

E.O.Abraham Elenjickal
Tel:0477 – 2235601
Email: abrahamelenjickal@gmail.com

Your browser may not support display of this image. Christians are still a minority in our Country They are not even up to three percent in population, though St. Thomas visited India as a Christian missionary in A.D. 52. Again, Francis Xavier another missionary came to India to propagate Christanity in 1542. In spite of all these, Christians remain a meager minority of this country. Why it happened so? One of the main reasons, is that there were no kings or emperors in this country to sponser these missionaries, whereas Islam spread in the whole of India, because there were emperors and kings to patronize and propagate this religion. That is the case of Buddhism also. Buddhism originated in India. Emperors like Asoka, embraced this religion and sent missionaries to Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal, Mangolia, Japan, China, Ceylon and son on. In all these countries, Buddhism spread like wildfire and even at present, there are millions in these countries as followers of this religion. But the pity is that, at present, it has only very few followers in India from where it originated. Lord Buddha founded this religion when Hinduism degraded with its superstitions and evil practices. Actually Buddhism is only a refined form of Hinduism. That is why it could not retain so many people in India to its rank and file.

Christianity is one of the predominant religions in the world. It is the main religion in Europe, United States, Canada, Australia and so on. In almost all the countires of the world like Asia, Africa, Latin America, Philipinese, Newsland etc, Christianity has its followers. So far as India is concerned, there are only a few states like, Kerala, Goa, Nagaland, Assam etc.. where the Christian population is not meager. Now in many of the Northern Indian states Christian missionaries face threat to their lives and Institutions.

Wherever the Christian community is there, they do a lot of charitable service for the uplift of the down-trodden. They do a lot of social activities to help the poor and needy. India can never forget the contribution of Christians in the fields of education and public health.

People of Kerala are proud of the High literacy, of our state. When compared to Kerala, almost all the Indian states are far behind in the field of education. How we could achieve this covetable position? When the kings ruled Travancore, admission to Govt. Schools and Colleges was denied to the backward and scheduled caste communities. The Christian missionaries who established, educational institutions through out the length and breadth of Kerala opened the gated of their schools and colleges for everybody without looking into caste or creed. Thus the downtrodden section of the people of Kerala, got an opportunity to educate themselves in these institutions and they were able to secure high positions in the society and to inspire their communities about the need of getting educated.

Later the S.N.D.P., N.S.S. and recently the M.E.S. started so many schools and colleges in Kerala to give opportunity for their youngsters to get educated in their own educational institutions. But even today the Christian Community is in the fore-front regarding the number of schools and colleges they have, and the quality of education that is given in these institutions. The educational institution of the Christian community could mould a good number of leaders from the backward and scheduled caste communities, who later fought against the social inequalities.

Even in the cultural field the contribution of Christian community cannot be ignored. The growth and development of the Malayalam language is heavily indebted to the contribution of missionaries like Herman Gundart and Nidhirickal Mani kathanar. Nasrani Deepika which is the first daily News paper in Kerala is the Contribution of C.M.I. missionaries.

Though the Christian population is meager in almost all the Indian states, the very few people in all these states do a lot of service to the weaker section of the society. Among the Indian states Kerala is having the maximum Christian population and the Christian community here send a good number of priests and nuns to the different state in India for mission work. These Priests and nuns do their service in the remote villages of many Indian states. They start schools, Colleges, Hospitals and poor homes for the uplift of the downtrodden section of people in these villages.

These poor people were exploited by the Landlords in these areas for the last many years. They were working like slaves, in the Agricultural fields of these Landlords. When they got educated, they began to question these social injustice. That is why these fuedel Lords are threating the priests and nuns who work for the uplift of these poor people.

All the nations of the world have appreciated the great service Mother Theresa had done to the poor and destitutes in Calcutta. She never looked into caste or creed. We can’t understand the reason why some section of the people in India are criticizing the charitable service of the Christian community in every nook and corner of India.

Ours is the largest democracy in the world. Democracy will be successful only in a country where people are educated. But the curse of our country is the high percentage of illiteracy. The Christian missionaries who have migrated to different parts of India are conscious about this and they start educational institutions in places. Where they work. Almost all the reasonable people of this county appreciate the work done by the Christian missionaries in different parts of India. The contribution of the Jesuits in the educational field is really praiseworthy. Almost all the famous colleges and schools in different states of India belong to the Jesuit order. Nobody can disagree with the fact that though a minority community, Christians are doing yeoman service to the Nation.

The very aim of Bal-Bhavan movement in India is to supplement the present system of education through creative activities. We are not giving the due importance for fine arts in our carriculam. There is no doubt that the aesthetic sense and histrionic talents play a prominent role in developing the individuality and personality of our children. In almost all those children, who enter our educational institutions have some hidden talents, particularly in arts. Our educational institutions cannot do much in developing these talents. Bal-Bhavans make an earnest attempt to draw out these latent taltents and develop them and thereby we would do our best to promote their personality and individuality.

A flower blossoms and spreads its delicious perfume all around. The leaves grow and move in the wind in its own position. The roots go deep into the soil A plant grows and lives in this way. The growth and development of an Individuality is the same like that of a plant. Individal cannot be developed by merely strengthening any of the instincts. Education is meant for the alround development of the individual.

“School Education” aims to impart instruction in various fields of human knowledge. With the massive inflow of information and knowledge from various disciplines the syllabi and the curriculum tends to be heavy and time consuming. In the process the important objective of education namely, providing opportunity for self-expression and self discovery to students is often ignored. The students thus tend to be passive partners in a school situation and hence refrain from participation in the complete educational process. Thus, the children being at the receiving end, the process of education become routinised and becomes dull to them.

In order to supplement the school education Bal-Bhavan Movement has come into existence as an after school agency to promote the alround development of the children. It still continues to serve the child community not only after school hours but also during holidays and vacations when children are often neglected and need to be motivated and steered towards creativity. It is a fact that 45% of the population of India are children, who are below the age of 15. If we ignore the children, it means we ignore a vast majority of our county on whose shoulders lay the responsibility of shaping India for the 21st century. India’s greatest asset is her man power and to-day’s children will be citizen and leaders of tomorrow.

The Bal-Bhavan Movement has proved that the concept of creative education through various media is successfully in creating opportunities for children for self-expression. We are learning all the time, that education is a life long process. But what we should judge is how the educational experience to which we are exposing the children and young helps them to become creative. The new concept of creativity is simply to let a child discover its latent potential. For us every child it creative. It is environment, whether in the form of a family, a neighbour-hood, a school or a club that hinders or boosts its creativity. This only means that a right type of environment helps creative expression. The expression may however be “through certain media, writing, painting, clay modeling, singing, percussions, dramatics, games, crafts etc….