Blah blah blah

My old boss at BBC TV has died. Edward Barnes launched John Craven’s Newround the news programme for young viewers in 1972, after discovering that only 0.7% of his target age group watched TV news: ‘It was a man in a suit, talking, and it was boring,’ he said with characteristic bluntness. However, few people at the helm of the BBC thought that Newsround would be a success.

Last weekend I attended a friend’s Golden Wedding Anniversary. His son reminded me that he had watched me reporting for Newsround and how it had sparked his interest in global affairs. He introduced me to his young daughter – ‘we now watch the programme together.’ So the naysayers were proved wrong and Newsround has inspired generations of children.

Edward’s newsmen in suits, talking, are still around. Now women too, albeit in brighter coloured suits. They were out in force at the British Labour Party Conference this week. They discussed ad infinitum just how ‘inspirational’ or not the speech of leader Keir Starmer would be/should be/ had been.

Meanwhile, at the Youth4Climate Summit 18 year-old activist Greta Thunberg was fed up with words that achieved nothing.
‘Hope is not blah blah blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action.’

Once you get off the Blah Blah Blah circuit, there are people who inspire everywhere. People who dig others out of a rut of complacent thinking and force us to open wider our eyes and minds.
It can produce ripples of positive action.
It continues to sustain me.

I was on the phone to my friend Sister Jessy the other day. She is a catholic nun doing fabulous social work in Bihar. She was updating me about a girl called Asha, now aged nine. Asha is one of the students at a school run by the convent.  She had recently sat the entrance examination for the local government school – passed everything with flying colours…except Maths, which she failed. She was turned down for a place.
Instead of accepting her lot, she took on the school authorities, telling them that they were wrong and simply had to admit her. She suggested they ask for a reference from someone who knew her well – Sister Jessy.

‘I was away at the time,’ said Jessy. ‘Otherwise for sure she would have been admitted. We have put her in another school. That one will always get her way.’

I wasn’t at all surprised to hear this tale. The last time I saw Asha she was one of six young girls I took to our nearest eye hospital – the MHKS at Motihari. They were given a tour by staff member Sumant and saw hundreds of cataract-blind patients waiting for surgery. I showed them how to examine the back of the eye with my pocket ophthalmoscope. Then Sumant asked if they had any questions.
Up shot Asha’s arm.  ‘Sir, how exactly do you remove the cataract from the eye?’

What is inspiring about all this is not just one small scruffy and super-alert child called Asha. Or even the fact that she comes from a family of so-called ‘untouchables’; had she and her sisters not been taken out of their village to be educated by the nuns from an early age, their lives would have been bleak.
What I find so joyful is the overwhelming confidence that Asha demonstrates time and time again. And this comes from the way the Canossian Sisters educate their charges.
In most Indian schools, discipline is tough, rote-learning the norm, and there is little attention given to the importance of play. Not so at any of the schools run by these extraordinary nuns. The children thrive and learn fast because they are happy. They in turn ‘excite, encourage and instil confidence in others’ – which is one definition of the verb ‘to inspire.’

Nearer to home, I have been inspired by someone at the other end of the age spectrum – 92 year-old Elizabeth Jones. This sparky nonagenarian, blind in one eye from an accident, and partially-sighted in the other, runs Talking News Islington – a free service for blind residents. They receive a CD every month which contains a summary of local news and other snippets of information, recorded by a band of volunteers.
TNI used to have a studio provided by the council. This stopped during the first lockdown. So Elizabeth set up a studio in her kitchen. CDs are produced on a machine in her living room.
A few months ago she fell and broke her hip and thigh bone. ‘That slowed me down a bit’ she admitted. ‘But I am getting mobile again.’ And indeed she was as she led me down to her kitchen to make me a cup of tea.
Elizabeth’s only frustration is that she is not reaching enough blind residents who would benefit from receiving the CDs. So anyone living in the London borough of Islington please contact her if you know of anyone. (elizabeth.jones2@googlemail.com). Or call her on 0207 272 5481.

Women Who Inspire was this month’s theme for an Indian publication called Seminar sent to me by a friend. The introduction explaining why they had chosen this subject veered a little towards the blah blah blah spectrum. But the article my friend wanted me to read was about our mutual friend, the late Chandralekha. She was a dancer, choreographer, poet, activist and all round extraordinary human being. Do look her up and experience a shiver of wonder and excitement.

What I liked about the write-up  – by Tishani Doshi - was that it refused to contextualize Chandra, the default position for many writers when trying to explain why they find someone ‘inspiring.’ Instead, Tishani tells a series of stories so that readers get to know Chandra better. My favourite was this:
‘At a consultation with her doctor, one of Chennai’s top heart surgeons, Chandra berated him for the ugly poster of the human heart hanging above his desk, objecting to its literal interpretation of the heart as a giant pumping machine. ‘This is not what my heart looks like,’ she insisted.

Some months later, tells Tishani, at the doctor’s request, Chandra’s dancers performed Sharira (Body) at a conference for heart surgeons, so they could understand that it was possible for audience and performer to share a heart – ‘sahridaya’ being the Sanskrit word for this.

 Lucy Mathen

#sahridaya   #sharingaheart   #nomoreblahblahblah   #hopeistakingaction #gretathunberg