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On summer flings Part 2
title
Friday, May 13, 2011
date
~デンスキ♥
Disclaimer: This post is purely fictional. Any resemblance it may have to real people and events is partly coincidental and unintentional.

Alternate Ending//Second Lesson: Society and Tradition

Lottery was the title of that short story discussed on that day.

It tells a tale of a small village, seemingly in the mid-1900s. The people are excited, there is a commotion in the town square. A huge crowd begins to gather around: the children, elderly, men and women. Almost all are present, so a roll call for families ensues.

While the facilitator reads the list, we learn of a woman who doesn't seem as excited as the other villagers. She questions this event, asking if this is necessary. It is the tradition, one tells her. It has begun way before she was even born. But why? She further asks. What is the point of the whole thing? Hush, she is told, the lottery is about to start. And it does.

The facilitator brings out an old box. It indeed looks old and battered, but it has to do. A block is picked from the box: it bears the family name of the same woman. She is in shock and resists. There turns out to be another step in the lottery. The woman's family members ignore her protests and they proceed with the next step. The blocks, each bearing the names of each one in that family, were placed in the box and another draw occurs. Due to the early foreshadowing, we quickly deduce that they picked the woman's name. She further resists. The crowd cheers. She screams. Her family joins in with the crowd... as they stone her to death. The end.

By this time, nothing surprises me much anymore. Ever since the first day of classes, I've taken every single day to be either sickly humorous, disturbing or just plain weird. It's not that I now find the class boring, it's just that I've learned to expect the unexpected. Oh, ee cummings, I would never look at brand new cars the same way again.

"Ano? Sagwa no?" Our professor grins again. "May nandidiri pa rin ba tuwing binabanggit ang sex dito sa klase? Oh may gahd, antatanda niyo na! I'm not a nymphomaniac or anything. Pero guys, titi lang yaaaaaan! Mas natural pa yan sa mga lalaki kaysa sa pag-ahit. Kasi ang pag-ahit, hindi yan natural! Hay. Tradisyon. Kultura. Relihiyon. Ito ang dapat nyong isisi sa kamangmangan nyo. Wala naman masama sa sex as long as walang nararape, di ba? Gagawin at gagawin niyo rin yan."

What if I took this class during my first year? That would've been golden. I feel that college, asides from adding extra pounds and eyebags, tends to strip you of thrill and amusement. Or maybe it's just me.

"Okay mga sisterettes, dahil hindi kayo umiimik, humanda na kayo sa exams. Ngayon na."

She never gives up, does she?

I still don't know how you felt during those classes. You told the whole class once that your idea of fun is over-thinking situations and answering deep questions. And everyone in class is quite aware of your equally crazy sense of humor. Yet, you never told me if you really enjoyed this particular class as I did. If you ever had, you barely showed it.

"Hmm... Nakakatamad mag-isip ng tanong. Gusto niyo ba na mag-perform na lang kayo? Di baaaaa? Napakaboring kasi kung magsusulat lang kayo. At ayoko magcheck. Halleeeeeeer. Nakakatamad. Ayoko makakita ng kwarentang versions ng 'What is Literature?' Like, yuuuuuuck. At least, kayo naman yung pagtatawanan ko."

We laughed. Whimsical as she was, she did have a point. I bet she had grown tired of all those traditional pen and blue book exams during her undergraduate years. We couldn't blame her for being bored.

The class was divided into 3 groups to discuss and tackle three main issues: Race, Class and Diaspora. Each issue had a corresponding short story to perform: A Rose for Emily, Nilda and Fruit Stand. In addition to that, they had to modify the story and include a Filipino element and either one of the given themes: education, family, love, politics, culture, religion, youth and gender. Each play was at most 20 minutes long and to be performed at that auditorium by the Faculty Center. Props and costumes were part of the criteria asides from the content and entertainment value.

Now that I think about it, I bet our professor had planned this all along and did not do it on a whim. Especially after she gave us a week off to do this, a couple of reading assignments and a critical analysis paper.

After drawing lots, we ended up with Class. It was suggested that we discuss the story first, before planning and rewriting the tale.

Nilda is a Filipino story narrated by an unnamed character. He recalls his early teenage years living in a very wealthy and privileged family. The main premise is how his nanny, Nilda, guided him in his pre-adolescent stage and taught him the intricacies of lovemaking. There are obvious conflicts in class and love; the story ending with Nilda's return to the province.

"His mother obviously found out," says Charles, the psych major. "Else, why would she send Nilda packing?"

"I don't think so," you reply. "If I was that mother and saw that she was fooling around with my son, I wouldn't let her leave. I'd kill her."

"Loool. Good point," Carter adds. "Ang kalmado nga ng nanay. Pero di ba nahuli niya na may bitbit siyang picture ng alaga niya? Tapos binalik."

"Baka akala lang nangungupit siya." Marivic laughs.

"Well, we could also deduce that the mother had no say in the house. Especially since she was barely mentioned in the story," you say. "And maybe she wanted to avoid causing commotion. After all, the father was assumed to be still recovering from the ambush."

All of us nodded in agreement as a late group mate approached us.

"Sorry guys, medyo naligaw lang," she smiles as she takes the empty seat across mine and beside yours. "Pakilala muna kayo, di ko pa kabisado mga pangalan at course nyo. I'm Winnie, BS Civil Eng'g."

"Tony, Civil Eng'g rin," the guy beside her says. Winnie grins back at her course mate.

"Carter, BS IE."

"Pao, Pol Sci."

"Hikari, BS BA. And no, halata naman na hindi ako Hapon. Trip lang ng nanay ko na Hapon ung pangalan ko."

Then my turn. Then the next guy, Vince, who turned out to be in the same department as I was. Then, Marivic, the CommRes girl. Then, Charles.

"Nicholas or just Nic. From Music."

I never expected that you were from music. The rest were equally curious about your course choice. You then said you were majoring in violin and minoring in conducting and chorale ensemble. Well, that explains the way you fiddle your left hand unconsciously at times. Call me judgmental but I assumed you were taking up pre-law or something.

I guess people are really judgmental by nature. The first thing to notice about someone is the physical appearance, then the manner of speaking, then the body language. This was apparent while we were picking roles. They were assigned based on these criteria, which might be the traditional way, I guess.

If that's the case, then tell me, Nic. Tell me how I ended up playing one of the lead roles.

//end of Part 2
>> Part 3

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