L'Alliance

It has been one of my biggest dreams-learning French. My dream was extremely fuelled by Sir's French poetry and I hoped to write some of my own some day (obviously not as good as Sir!). The dream was materialized on 22nd August when I joined L'Alliance Francaise du Bengale. It has been almost three months since my joining and I have a feeling that I am not wasting my precious time here as many think, firstly because my time is not that precious yet as of those people who are twittering on twitter and secondly, I am loving the French classes immensely (and to talk of the people who tell I am wasting time, if loitering aimlessly in City Centre is a better usage, I drop my case!).

Before getting into the details of my institute and the varied dimensions that it offers, a little about the quirky man who teaches me French! Monsieur Amitava Das is in his early thirtes (although he looks like someone who has just done his graduation). He has a very homely sort of appearance that makes the nervous student attending the first class feel quite at ease!
He works in a multinational company and teaches in Alliance on saturdays and sundays. He is a wonderful teacher to have if you are a beginner. He isn't stringent but still can keep the students from being indisciplined.He has all the important qualities that a good teacher must have to keep his students interested in the subject. He is very lively and vivacious when it comes to teaching. When you are learning a new language its very important to converse in that language. He makes sure that it happens in his class - the students talking in French and only in French. He encourages us not to stick to our course book and read other texts as well (even TitTin and Asterix which were originally written in French.).

Speaking of my classmates, our class has students of all types, starting from school goers to office goers, Chinese to Bengalis! There are students who come all the way from Behrampore to learn French here. I have found some good friends as we share the same interests to a large extent. Most of them are associated to big names like IBM, PWC and yet find the pursuit of a Foreign language worthy to "waste" time on. Most of them are quick and eager learners and some are voracious readers. I feel comfortable in their company and get to learn a lot from them.

The things that separates Alliance Francaise from any other French teaching institute is its intensive exta curricular activities and the fact that it's directly under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, France. Cultural workshops are conducted by teachers and senior students on a regular basis and even new students are encouraged to participate in plays that are staged in front of huge spectators. From the question papers, the evaluation of the answer scripts, to the certificates that you get after completing the course, everything is issued by the French Ministry of education. Students who intend to do their masters in Engineering or in Management in France get special benifits. As this institute is directly under the French Embassy, deserving candidates get scholarships to do their masters abroad.If you are interested in French music, Alliance Francaise is the place where you should be.


I am not a regular class goer. The last time when I did regular classes was back in class ten(my English tuitions). And now I am a common face in the Alliance Francaise for the past three months. It is the place to be for someone who loves the language and wants to learn it.


N.B.- This is for all the students and the ex-students of Alliance Francaise du Bengale. Please be kind enough to share your experiences in the institute through your comments.

Life At Suvro Sir's Den

I still remember vividly the day when I first entered Suvro Sir's house. It was 4th of April ,03,a bright sunny day. I along with my buddies- Arghya,Arnab were at his house by 8:15. Nirmal Da , the house keeper led us to the study room. The room was very spacious and comfortable. A portion of the left wall was occupied by a rack completely filled with books. On the opposite wall I saw a piece of paper framed and hung to the wall. It stated the qualities that a Teacher should have.

Soon the entire room was filled with students, most of them were familiar faces. At the stroke of 8:30, our teacher entered from the door on the right. He was around six feet tall, skinny, looked too young to be in his forties. He neither looked like the 'techie tutor', one who would have a projector and would dictate notes from his slides, nor did he belong to the traditional kind. He was unique. He took his chair and asked us to take out our notebooks. He said that before starting with us he would like to know on what grounds do we stand .He took a test(The Diagnostic Test)to judge our level of confidence with the language. I was simply shocked. None of us expected it. We gave the test.I scored a miserable fifty-five. Even now when I am writing this post I can recollect the the mistakes that I had made on that day.I am going to remember this test for along time

I was impressed by his style that day and decided that whatever happens I am going to continue with him till the very end. At that moment I didn't even have the slightest idea of what was in store for us. ICSE English was only an excuse.A certain amount of time of everday's class was scheduled for extra curricular activities. We did everything.From solving jigssaw puzzles and unjumbling words to playing scrabble and voice recording.He introduced me to Western music.When it came to serious business he was very professional.Among the stories and poems that were included in our curriculum I enjoyed "The Lady Or The Tiger"and "The Man With The Hoe" respectively the most.No one could have done more justice to the play than Suvro Sir.As all of Sir's ex-student will know,Sir is a phenomenal storyteller.The Rashid of Durgapur.The ambiance that he creates is awesome.I can still recollect the goosebumps that I felt when he narrated "The Believers".He has translated Rabindranath Tagore's "Galpo gucho" in English while he was a teacher in St. Xavier's School,Durgapur. And as many of you know he has written a few french poems as well.

This part of my post is concerned to all those parents who have either enrolled their children in Sir's classes or intend to do the same.You would listen different kinds of rumours about Sir and his style of teaching- that he gets too far fetched and is not limited to the school curriculum,that he asks his students to read books other than those which are a part of school syllabus.If encouraging students to read good books and watch good movies is a sin then I have nothing to say.It is you not your neighbour who will decide what is good for your child. Next year my brother will be in ninth standard and hence eligible to get enrolled in Sir's classes.If my father doesn't get posted somewhere else I won't even give it a second thought about getting him admitted .I know what I have gained there.I intend to do an MBA from an A plus college.In order to do that one should have a formidable stock of words.Your vocabulary has to be very strong and you cant develop it in a day or two.It is improved with time.Some of the other requisites are your communication skills.If you can't communicate your interviewer your point in the interview then you are a dead duck.Group discussions are organized here on daily basis. The advantage that your child will have here is that he will not have to look for a group for group discussions.This will help your child get out of the shell.So my advice to all the parents is to turn a deaf ear to all the fake rumours and choose what is best for their child.

Suvro Sir is the kind of person you come across once in a blue moon.A man in his mid forties having so much enthusiasm and passion still left towards his job is simply phenomenal.I don't have marks to show what I have learned and gained from him.It can only be felt.As Shantunu Sir said in my blog 'Sir is a great motivator of young minds'.He has been a tremendous influence in my life and continues to be.

You don't always get an opportunity to thank your teacher. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for being such a great support in everything that I have done.At the beginning of the post I mentioned a list stating the requisites of a good teacher. Sir fulfills all of them.

If I have missed out on anything important please let me know by your comments