It’s that time of the year,
no no don’t get any ideas, I am not talking about spring or the birds or the
bees or any romance. It’s when the board results are declared and every minute
that is the count down to the release is like a count down to death. Some start
doing path, prayers to the Almighty aka like me, some start eating copious
amounts to deal with the stress of the results being declared. It’s been a
crazy one-week. I just went from being a normal human being who smiled, cracked
jokes to this irritable quiet version of me; it was as if the hardware inside
of me had malfunctioned. This behavior where I was quiet, wasn’t pinging everyone,
all and sundry and just being the gregarious me, had everyone worried. I had
friends calling asking where I had disappeared and why I wasn’t chatting.
The insane pressure
the society puts on us, about the marks and how much you and your child scored
is as if they are less than normal one should go commit suicide in the chullu
bhar paani!
The trolls that have
hit the virtual world are all true , every far off relative , every aunt ,
uncle, starts to worry about how much your child has scored and what he or she
is going to do . Actually, I should not be feeling bad, if the party in Delhi
didn’t spare the PM and worry about his name, his degree and how
much he scored why his name was written completely, or whether it was
computerized list, who am I so why should I worry. Successively, over the years
we have started judging children, the parents over the results they achieve. We,
overlook the child, his innocence, and his potential. In fact, in our forties
now I don’t think we even remember how much we scored in our twelfth, we don’t
even bother now. How is that we start judging them on the basis of percentage
scored and they become a statistic? Today, four have committed suicide, till
the end of the week we don’t know how many. Some get reported, some don’t. It s
the Indian hall of shame. We don’t talk about this, we just shove it under the
family carpet and we have this composed face because what will Mrs. Sharma Ji, Mrs.
Singh of the kitty say?
Today, in the weekly
conversations the PM has with the country, he mentioned about one young boy
from MP, who in spite of scoring an 89.33% wanted four marks to score a perfect
90 which would make his family happy.
What are we driving
ourselves to? A society of perfect individuals, robotic, driven to perfection
with no time for play or innocence. When did this change become? Why are marks
a measure of your child, his smile, his worth? Or are we so self-driven by
degrees, translate into money, social status and all sorts of material
possessions as a mark of success!
And, then the irony
when we turn them into these cold, lacking human values driven by mammon they
face stress and try to re –discover the power of stress free life, yoga, and
the wisdom of ancient texts.
Today, I am a normal
mother contended with what my son scored, supported by brilliant friends who
told me it doesn’t matter what he scores, but that he is a good human being g. I’m
afraid, that doesn’t translate into admission into the college that just look
at the magical number. What is the future of our children, how do you expect
them to escape the cynicism of failure, mediocrity, of being average, of not
attaining it?
Don’t look for answers
from the man in the moon, or from the green men from Mars. It all lies with in
us collectively.
Ps: any tips to get
the hair to be not so whiter than white that I put the politicians to shame?
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