Among The Waves – Ivan Aivazovsky
For the last three months, I haven’t written any text for the Blog “From the Director’s desk”. I haven’t felt like it. I spent most of my free time reading and checking the news in French and Indian newspapers, wondering, where are we heading. We, as an institution –the Alliance française de Delhi, Societies -both Indian and iFrench, and, maybe, even as a species…
Adding another text on the pandemic, trying to find answers (and hopefully not from Facebook and YouTube’s newly self-appointed experts in epidemiology and other microbiology…), being tempted to find somebody to blame (usually with the benefit of hindsight, or using the French expression: “YAQUA et FAUQUON”) didn’t seem to me, to be a valuable thing to do.
During the peak of the pandemic, many people at the Alliance Française became sick, and some even lost loved ones. Nonetheless, we managed to keep our ship afloat, and of course, even on these violent waves.
I like this nautical metaphor, for obvious personal reasons, as I am a sailor myself, but also, because the image of a beautiful ship best describes an institution like ours. It has to be well conceived and solidly built, not to fight the sea and the wind, which would be doomed to failure, but to harness these elements to sail safely in the chosen direction. In beautiful weather, the crew deploys the main sail, the genoa and even the spinnaker: these are the times to add nautical miles to our journey, to fill the ship’s holds with fish and the spirits with sun. During a storm, this is the time to bring down the main sails, and to raise the jib, with only one thought in the mind – the safety of all. But, this preoccupation, doesn’t require stopping the ship (good luck with that anyway…), and letting her become a prey to the elements. No, it means, adapting the ship as well as the crew, to these new circumstances because salvation lies in the movement.
And more than ever, the “we” I used above is a collective one. I know that this expression is sometimes overused, and then squandered (from the captain of the winning football team to the actor awarded a prize in Cannes festival); but in the Alliance, during this last tempest, everybody stayed on the deck and did their duty.
Amongst the many results of this collective effort, a few have to be brought to light: Firstly, we have managed to keep each member of the crew on board, as nobody has been left behind because of the pandemic. Secondly, almost 2,800 students have chosen to trust us and to continue to study French with us, and we surely know how challenging this time is for everyone.
But, our journey on troubled waters has not finished, even if mass vaccination is calming the sea. Almost all our staff at the Alliance française has been vaccinated, mainly thanks to the French Embassy’s Moderna campaign. But, the risk is still there, and we need to continue to be prudent, and adopt all necessary precautions. This is why for almost a year and half, all our classes have been conducted on line, and unfortunately, there are chances that the next session will also be on line. Fortunately, our teachers are now well trained to carry on, however, what we are losing in physical and social interactions, we are making up for in comfort and in saving time.
On the cultural front, the damage has been even greater. In between January and March, we were so happy and excited to be able to return to the stage, and in those ten weeks to organize some concerts, talks and exhibitions. But in April, the second wave forced us again to retreat online.
Culture online is difficult, no doubt. It is difficult to curate an interesting event for the screen, firstly, for technical reasons (“please unmute yourself”; “I can’t see you”; “your connection is unstable” …), secondly because the artists, the intellectuals and of course, the public are tired. We, the organizers, but also the audience, have lost patience, motivation and concentration, not to mention having “double vision” (there are a few industries who have been able to profit from this health crisis, and I think that one of them is ophthalmology: I am sure that more glasses have been sold than ever…).
But, of course, we will continue to provide events of quality, tailored for the Internet: shorter (“who watches a 90 minutes’ concert?”), on demand (“who wants to sit down at 3 pm to see a French film when anybody can choose to watch it anytime on one of the increasing numbers of video platforms, on demand or by streaming?”) and of course with a French touch (“why sit in front an event offered by the Alliance française? Because, they are unique in the way that they cater for you, Students, Members and Friends of the Alliance”).
So, from the crow’s nest perched on the mast, we can discern a silver lining, there, on the horizon. What this silver lining represents is the possibility of resuming all the services we owe you, and of bringing you on a stimulating linguistic and cultural cruise on our ship: which awaits you.