Yes.

Yaya graduated from Spanish Immersion last week. 3 years ago, when she joined the immersion class, she didn’t know a word of Spanish. All the kids in the immersion had to write a test at the end of 6 week intense basic Spanish lessons and only those who passed the exam were allowed to continue with the program. Yaya’s class started with 29 students, and only 14 survived the 3 years of rigorous learning.

When we were living in Canada, Yaya had the option to join the French Immersion program, but I didn’t let her. I studied in Malayalam medium till 10th std and even to this day I don’t know the equivalent word of a lot of mathematical terms in English. ( it also didn’t help that I didn’t study Maths after 10th). I felt late immersion programs are better because Yaya would have learned all the mathematical/scientific terms in English by then and it will not create a lot of confusion for her. She enjoyed the program and speaks fluent Spanish now.  It is not just getting all A’s or getting the gold medal that mattered the most to me, more than anything I admire her determination and ‘never give up’ attitude, especially in the first year of the program when so many of her friends quit because the program was very intense and expected a lot from the students.

This was my son’s assignment. Monologue on Puck ( asking a character a moral question).

I seek all of thy forgiveness for my actions. I know now that magic cannot make amend for all of my actions. I shall use a tiny amount of magic to gain thy forgiveness by making it seem as though all of this was a dream. I quote myself in asking for thy forgiveness “If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended, that thou have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear (A5 S1 L415-418).

If thou shall forgive me for my actions, I will make it up to you, this will all be a dream and thou were merely asleep when thou saw these visions as they are no more real than a dream.

From my actions, thy art to judge me as an annoying, meddling child. I wish for thou to lend me thy ears. I realise that I can be mischievous and act as though I have not a care in the world, but it comes as a first nature as a jester to prank and to be careless. I am merely but a loyal servant to my good king Oberon. I do whatever he asks me to do. I am also his jest, therefore I seek laughs and smiles from him… and these I receive through pranks. I wish not to harm anyone though, I wish for my pranks only to bring laughter and smiles to everyone.

When Titania arrived back from India, she brought with her an Indian changeling boy. She knew well that a changeling boy would usually become a part of King Oberon’s workforce. However, she seemed to have different ideas as to what to do with the boy; she intended to keep the boy and covet him like a treasure. Having felt betrayed, Oberon struck an argument with Titania. The argument left Oberon furious and seeking revenge on Titania. “I’ll make her render up her page to me” he said (A2 S1 L189). Oberon ordered me to find a flower that had been struck by an arrow from Cupid’s bow, known as the Love in Idleness flower. He sought the power the juice of the flower provided. He was going to place the juice in the eyes of a sleeping Titania and when she was to wake, the first living creature she saw she would immediately fall in love with. He intended to force her to give up the Indian page boy by making her fall unwillingly in love with some hideous animal of sort.

My loyalty to Oberon and my mischievous personality compelled me to search for the flower. After looking long and hard, I finally obtained the flower and returned to my King with it and all of its juices. He told me to take some of the flower’s juice and head off into the forest where I would find a young boy dressed as an Athenian and a sweet young lady whose love had been rejected by the boy. I scavenged the forest, seeking the two youths and after searching for a long while, a young man I spotted, lying on the ground. He was dressed in Athenian clothes. Then I spotted the girl, lying on the ground next to him. That is no such way to treat such a beautiful young girl I thought to myself. “Churl, upon thy eyes I throw, all the powers this charm doth owe” (A2 S2 L77-78) the jerk did not deserve a maiden such as she, but I had to do what my master said. I then placed the juice in the eyes of the boy using my sympathy for the girl to avoid my conscience and returned to Oberon.

I know now that my actions were wrong; to alter someone’s love towards another’s favour is immoral and unjust. Hopefully you could understand why I became so imperceptive to the immorality of my actions. Being a fairy I thought that anything I did could be undone with a touch of magic. My carelessness and mischievous personality lead me to harm two young Athenian women emotionally. Although I may like to prank, I wish not to harm anyone. Even though it may be removed from their memories, it will never leave my memory; the fact that my carelessness caused harm to someone.

I knew that one day my carelessness would lead to the harming of a person, however I had no idea of the consequences. I have always viewed meddling as a way of receiving laughs. That is until I heard a young woman cry due to my meddling of a mortal matter.

I shall take heed to make use of this lesson and allow it to guide me in the future from careless acts and I shall think twice before following through on the jests I create to please my lord, Oberon.

 

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