CHENNAI: For someone who was born 448 years and 11,100 km away, William Shakespeare certainly has a lot of people rooting for his work right here in Chennai. But then the 'Bard of Avon' isn't just any playwright - it's almost impossible to find people who haven't heard of him, around the city. "Shakespeare? Of course I've heard of him. Hasn't everybody?" asks 16-year-old Neeta, an eleventh grader, who studied The Merchant of Venice in school last year. When she heard that the 'abridged' version she studied in her text book was a watered down, simple version of the Englishman's original, she seemed surprised, "Really? Thank god for that. This version had enough difficult names as it is," she said with a definite sigh of relief.This is not just with high-schoolers. Even college students, though intrigued by Shakespeare's stories, have an aversion to his blank verse as it tends to "leave us blank", as one student wryly put it. Thankfully, there are a few students in every college who still hold a candle for Shakespeare's work. “Most movies today still can't beat the satire and sarcasm that he used four centuries ago. Though it started as part of our studies, it has become a habit to read Shakespeare. Every time my group of friends finds an intriguing line, we post in on Facebook and then a lengthy thread of interpretations follows,” says Anusha M, who just completed college.“When we were studying Literature in the 70s, it was compulsory for every student of General English to do two of Shakespeare's plays. This was something that enriched our language and thinking,” recalls Dr V Rajagopalan, former Head of the Department of English at Madras Christian College. Today, even Literature students have to pass only one paper on Shakepeare across six semesters, he says with a shake of his head.So does that mean that Shakespeare's connect with today's youth is on the decline? “Not at all,” he says with a touch of vehemence, “If it is interpreted by a professor who enjoys Shakespeare and can take it to the students, it can be brought back for every college student to enjoy,” he adds. An avid reader of the Bard's work, Dr Rajagopalan was the person who organised the two-day Shakespeare Festival in MCC in 2004 -- a landmark event that had a model of the Globe Theatre and other portraits on display.As another English professor in a leading college in Chennai summed it up, “There are a good number of Literature students who have a taste for Shakespeare and organise debates and discussions on how to interpret his plays. If it has interested students of this generation, why can it not be passed on to the next?” she asks. Why ever not? That is the question.
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