Childhood days were days of great dreams,
dreams of becoming big, in haste to grow up we would imitate ourselves
like grown ups, learn their body languages of grown up people whom we
then idolize, habits which stuck up with our persona and in turn swayed
us away from our own originality.
The common career trend in our childhood
days was to study hard, become either doctor or engineer. It was a
profession of repute, it still does is. IT, Biotech, Hospitality or
other similar sunrise industries which we see now was not even heard of
in the 80′s. Schools and Education was the main source of achieving what
we’d then dreamt of, of becoming big. We would be pampered, cuddled,
forced to study, study even harder. The boy or girl earning more
percentages then us would be envied upon by parents, and at times hated
by us, for because of them, we were being looked down and forced to do
what we did not particularly liked much – to study.
Childhood days were of forced education i
guess, because most of the times we kids did not understand what we
have learnt, so just mugging up was what we used to do. But, as we grew
up we started to cope up with the system and learnt more precisely what
we were required to. Education then we thought was the only thing that
can change lives. Education is important, but, it is not the only thing
that can change lives, is now what i believe, your attitude, your
experiences, your approach can also change things upside down.
We were in our tenth standard and it was
the final year of our secondary education, a make or break year that
could shape up our future permanently. Obviously, we all were very
serious about the year. Coincidentally, the school in which we were
enrolled was a new and our school wanted to prop up the best of results,
the teachers exulted extra pressure on us to perform better. We all
were a good batch and were expecting a good result for the school and
ourselves. There were a couple of students who not so good enough,
teachers pressed them hard to study.
Then there was this boy, who had
different ideas, he was average in studies, he had good dreams, dreams
of college life and the fun of it. He would study as hard as us. After
the exams he was the boy who rushed to various colleges to collect
admission forms, and he had scouted around 25 different colleges &
collected forms in that one month of vacation.
Soon the D day arrived, and we all waited
with anxiety for the results. At around 5.30 pm the teacher came with
the results and declared the results, just the basic result of pass or
fail, in the class of forty, only three students failed to pass the
hurdle that evening , it was a good result by all measures. We
were jubilant and it was one of the happiest moments of our lives.
But as our happiness sunked in we soon
realized that the boy was nowhere around, we understood that he had
failed the exam, the boy full with dreams to enjoy the college life
could not have gone to college that year, he was broken, he was nowhere
around. He was my best friend, he still is, after so many years, we were
actually a gang of four. So we three friends rushed to our homes to
find him, we checked up with our parents whether he was seen in the
locality, the happiness was now replaced with tension, tension that this
emotional boy might end up taking some drastic steps. We reached his
home and inquired with his mother whether the boy turned up, the anxious
mother said no and asked what was the matter and about the result. We
lied to her that the results would be declared tomorrow morning and made
a hasty escape. Now, we were really tensed, where would this boy have
gone after all. We confided the story to one neighborhood uncle who was
very close with us. He too now joined the search for this boy. Our
search finally took us to the secluded railway tracks, where we found a
faint shadow of a boy sitting all alone on the tracks for the train to
arrive, we ran towards him, as we went near and near we found that he
was the boy whom we were searching for so long. As the boy saw us, he
became unusually aggressive and started shouting us to stay away from
him, he picked up stones from the track and started throwing it at us.
His anger might surely have hurted us, then the uncle came in front and
said “…son, you want to harm me, come throw the stone, hurt me”, saying
so he kept on moving closer and closer to the boy. The boy could not
have hurted the uncle whom we all liked so dearly. He helplessly hugged
the uncle and wailed and weeped like it was the end of the world for
him. Somehow, just somehow, we were able to convince the boy that it was
certainly not the end of the roads for him, we managed to bring him
back to his house and then we told his parents what had happened. They
were also broken. Time, as we say was the cure, the boy recovered from
the failure. No he did’nt study further or re-appear for the exam. But
that did not deter him from achieving his goals.
We are still in touch with each others,
sometimes, the boy who is now a man, a father of two, becomes nostalgic,
comes to the locality, he now stays in other suburbs, he becomes
sentimental, takes me down the road where it all happens, once he even
took me to the track where he was going to give up his life. He once
thanked me and my friends for saving his life.
Today, the boy is a successful
businessmen, he is a Wealth Consultant, last time when i visited his
office, i found fifteen employees, mostly graduates and MBAs working
under him. The boy in a jovial tone told me, you friends went to
colleges to complete your graduation, i plunged into this field and
today i employ graduates like you under me, come you too leave your job
and join me, i will pay you more than what you earn.
The joke he did somehow hurted me, for i
somehow felt that i spoilt some fine years of my life learning the
subjects which were never of any use to me. The history of world some
six centuries ago that i learnt, is of no use to me, the geography – the
easterlies, the westerlies, the physics, the geometry the trignometry
nothing, nothing helped, i never understood what Pythagoras, nor did i
ever understood the laws of the elements, the law of probability, but
still i mugged up just everything and scored handsomely. What was the
use of such education ?
The boy on the other hand, utilized
these precious years gainfully to learn life, to learn people, to learn
trade and today he succeeded, he earns atleast five times better than me
today. Money is not the factor, the confidence the boy gained is worth
appreciating, the command in his tone, the way he presents himself is
worth appreciating.
So the pertinent question that lingers to
me, is education, the way that it is taught in this part of the world
really helpful ? For the kid mugs up the entire year, reproduces it
during exam and the next day he gets blank, he learns nothing in the
process. In a way he learns the topic by heart but nothing ever touches
his heart. Thankfully, some steps are being now taking to overhaul the
education system, I guess it was long long overdue.
From my popular blog : www.vijayjoshi.in
From my popular blog : www.vijayjoshi.in
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