Kerala: SCERT has own version of Gooseberries

KOZHIKODE: The State Council for Educational Research and Training has given  far-fetched interpretations to  Anton Chekhov’s well-known short story, ‘Gooseberries,’ in the English text of Plus-One students. The questions associated with each paragraph in the text and the teachers’ handbook drive home the point that  ‘Gooseberries’ inspires to have a fixed goal in life and sacrifice everything to achieve it. But the original story, like other works of Chekhov,  does not  arrive  at any conclusion but throws up questions to the readers.

The story tries to explore ‘happiness’ through the perception of Ivan Ivanich and his younger brother Nicholai. Nicholai lives like a beggar to save money to achieve his only aim—own a farmhouse in the  countryside and live there. To realise it, Nicholai marries  an elderly, ugly widow. He keeps her half-starved and finally buys a 300-acre farmhouse. After years, Ivan visits Nicholai and finds  a pig- like brother. While Nicholai finds the first  gooseberries plucked from his farm very sweet, Ivan felt them as hard and sour.

“Gooseberries’  is a multi-layered, philosophically -toned great work of Chekhov. The author does not project  Nicholai’s way of  finding happiness. But SCERT has done that,” said a Higher Secondary English teacher. A number of  HSS English teachers agreed that they were confused about the original story and the text. The SCERT teachers’ handbook portrays Ivan as a cynical man who sees his brother as delusional, arrogant and misguided. It says that Ivan is unable to judge Nicholai’s happiness because he is  narrow-minded.

Dr Raveendran Nair, head of SCERT English curriculum committee,  said that the text was edited to the level of the students, but not distorted. “It was diluted for the comprehension of students. We will review it if there is complaint,” he said. Dr M.V Narayanan, professor,  Calicut University English department, told DC that though literature works  were not  sacrosanct, a total contradiction with  the original was not good. “To dilute the content for students’ is not  fair.  For textbooks, interpretation should be done carefully,” he opined. The story was included in the  syllabus three years back.