Cycle of Cliches
It was the collective deliberate distraction of their lives.
And hence the ploy to dismantle Deuta’s lesson-plan, to unsettle him and me. But Deuta, with all that he had learnt and experienced in fifty seven years of his life, never failed to surprise me with his smartness. He always had a counter-ploy. He easily gave in to their mood, and instead of teaching the nuances of language, he would start telling a story on one condition. That while telling the story, he would only speak in English, and if we were to ask any question, we would also have to speak in English. The class would comfortably embrace silence.