It is around 9:30 in the morning, the calendar in
the room reads 29 May 2011.Mr Shyam sits in the drawing room, sipping his
morning tea, He holds cup in his right hand and in his left hand he has the
newspaper. Panicky in heart is visible on his face. He is restless since last
night and for a longtime the he is continuously staring at the cell phone and
the desktop screen.
Ms Radhika, comes from the Puja Ghar and distributes
prashad to all the family members. She is also nervous like all the family
members. Artificial smell of sandal wood room freshener overpowers the smell of
Sandalwood dhoop. Middle class has grown tremendously over these years; this
can be sensed from the amount of money and offerings they make in temples.
Ananya, their daughter, is talking to her brother
over the cell phone, she sounds pretty confident though inside even she is nervous
too.
Suddenly the desktop screen starts to loading result
from the CBSE website. At this fall of events everyone in the house freezes in
their respective positions .Mr shyam with his tea and newspaper and mouth open .Ms
Radhika becomes immobile with puja thali and Ananya jumps from the sofa.
Ananya remembers her Hindi teacher’s words when her
brother topped two years back. “Ananya, with outstanding result of Ankit, you
know what we expect from you. You have to get better than him”.
“He also has made it to IIT, you know how you have
to do it too” she said to her two years back.
She wonders whether it’s her moment. In our country
the over-excitement and exaggeration over board results and seeing children
coming first is what everyone grows up witnessing.
All the three members get in front of the desktop;
their hearts are beating with speed of light. And when it shows-Ananya has made
them proud she has topped. Parents hug her. All her hard work and perseverance
has paid off. This result has also compensated for Ananya as few days back JEE
results brought disappointment to the family.
Both Ms Shyam and Ms Radhika gave both their kids
all the facilities, an affluent middle class family can give. Coaching, tuitons,
Air conditioned study room, proper diet and nutrition, entertainment. No wonder
why they stayed ahead of their classmates. In India, the kind of family you
take birth in decides how your rest of life will be, but people here call it
destiny.
Tanuja, commerce stream girl also topped .Everyone
in her house is also glad.hey can’t get happier than this moment, Very
temporary moment. They all practiced from both NCERT and Reference books, from
both solved and unsolved question paper. They practiced to write best answers
to impress the examiner and fetch great numbers
Board results are the only place and moment where
girls stay ahead of boys. Everyone in the country celebrates their triumph. But
nobody ponders what happens after these results. Rest part of their life they
are discriminated-they dropout, they marry, they keep family, they get less
paid in offices, they are harassed. Their glory faded away.
***
In midst of celebrations, phone rings in the Mr
shyam’s home. On the other side of phone it is teacher from school office
Ms Anuja “hello!!Mr. Shyam, Your daughter has made
us proud again .congratulations to you”
Ms shayam with teary eyes replies” hello Mam.
Congratulations to you too. Your blessings have helped her. You all made her champion.”
Ms Anuja replies and requests “Please send Aanaya to
school. Media would arrive soon and we will felicitate all the achievers”
The real drama will begin now. Like education
system, certain sections of Media are outdated too, they report how many topped
this year, All who score above 90 percent are achievers. They glorify the results.
They will interview toppers and what they want to become. How much hours did
they study?
Ananya gets dressed in the school uniform for the
second last time (last time will be in the felicitation ceremony at Vanity Auditorium,
where vanity will be celebrated).
Ananya with overwhelmed face says “Mammi, Papa I’ll
go to school and come back soon and then at night we will party.
But this not the story of all the houses on this
date, parents whose kids are stuck around 80 and above figure are disturbed. They
might say “Never mind, you did you best.” But in heart they know They are
minding it, you didn’t give your best. Kids are given false sympathy.
Such is the house of Mr Vikrant ,a strict father who
just wants his son to study hard and earn fame-make it too IIT or become an IAS
officer. His son though a bright student, in 12 th board managed to get 84%.He
isn’t happy and neither his family .But they all pretend they are happy and
cool.
Mr Vikrant says “Never mind, Manish.Dont worry”.
Manish couldn’t crack IIT-JEE as well.
“Papa I have decided to drop the year and next year
sure I will try to make it to IIT.”Says Manish to his father
In coming months he would isolate himself from the world;
he would deactivate his facebook account and would cut off from all his
friends. All he would do is to focus on his studies. He would drop only not to
make it to IIT again. He would move away from all worldly desires –love is of
course one of them-its hindrance in life of a person caught in crossroads .He
would act like the world expects a man to behave-consume your pain. Don’t cry.
Be a Man. From here begins is test of life which would continue lifelong.
Then there is this girl from the batch who is crying
and lay confused in her bedroom. Rote learning has earned respectable grade to
make her stand in society. Throughout the year she attended NIFT coaching and
along with taking accountancy tuition. However now she decides to purse
journalism.
All stories are same –middle class’s obsession with
high grades, premier institutes and universities. The purpose of equality and
quality is nowhere to be seen. If they
tell that education believes is equality, this is a myth. Just before the board
exams classes are divided into three categories .Section A for bright students,
section B for mediocre and section C for slow learners, because school want all
of them to pass. As Paulo Freire wrote in 1970s of the banking system in the
education system where-knowledge is poured into their brains. Students just
have to vomit out in the exams. The quality of vomit defines quality of grades
on your mark sheet.
***
Around 11:30 Anaya and battalions of toppers reach school.
The gatekeeper bhaiya says loud Mubarak ho sabko ,badhiya number aaye sabke”
“Thank you bhaiya “says the crowd of toppers.
The media persons are waiting with the tripod stand,
mic, and camera .They are excited to cover the toppers.
Like education system, media too is outdated.
Instead of covering what are the flaws in the education system and make their
banner headline over the flaws. They celebrate Mediocrity of over celebrating
the results and so called meritorious bunch.
Principals and teachers welcome them with garlands
of marigold flowers.
One of the toppers is being interviewed by the journalist.
J 1: So how do you feel Tanuja ? You got great grades
in accountancy, business studies?
Tanuja: it feels nice. It’s all my teachers and my
hard work that finally paid off
J 1: For girls it’s difficult as they have to do
household chores. How did you manage doing all this?
Tanuja:I don’t do house hold chores(I have maid in
my house) perhaps this what she said in her mind
Wrong questions are always asked to wrong people. No
journalist goes to the house of that girl who managed to get respectable grades,
despite doing household chore and had hard time balancing both studies and
family responsibility..
Then there is this cultured girl and whose conversation
is as follows.
J2: Congrats for your exemplary rank in to AIPMPT.
You have two reasons to celebrate?
Nancy: thank you.
J2: these days’ girls and boys have hard time coping
with relationship issues and that impacts their studies. What would you like to
say?
Nancy: Well that’s not part of their upbringing.
These are kind of educated products that come to out
of the present schooling system. Attraction is unnatural to them and anyone indulging
in it is sinful.
In the crowd a few students gossip about their
fellow topper friends.
Karan: Hey, that’s all destiny .Tanuja told me her
exams went fine and now see her marks.
Divya: These people they have always been like this.
They don’t study; their exams go fine it’s just they top in the end. Topping is
their habits. These bitches I tell you.
Anita: Her mom is getting her iPod.
Karan: Well don’t say a thing that makes us losers. Even
we are toppers.
Divya: we are not limelight toppers, we are crowd
toppers
Everybody together laughs. Their laughter is evident
of the fact that they have an incipient dislike for their fellow mates. Excessive
competition has marred them of respect towards each other.
Now its Ananya‘s turn to get camera over her
J3: 98% this figure is massive. How this miracle happened?
Ananya: it’s not miracle .It’s all hard work and dedication.
My parents and teachers all have contributed to this success.
J3: What are your future plans?
Ananya: To get to the good engineering college and
later become IAS officer to serve my country.
After they are clicked for more than hundred times
by media persons, they talk to teachers about their future plans .Everyone is
nervous whether they can make to top universities or not. In their
conversations the haste of returning home can be felt. It’s still hot outside.
Selfie culture is still a few years away from these people.
***
Soon the principal Ms Supriya draped in pink cotton sari
walks on the stage; her walk is full of confidence and proud. Her schools
students have made her climb on cloud number 7. She Announces “I can’t express
my happiness in words. Founder manager sir has just called me and informed that
felicitation ceremony would be held on June 25 2011.All meritorious student and
their parents are invited.”
On June 25 all the students would be accompanied by
their parents. Their chest would grow with pride. One by one all of them would
be called on the staged .they would be given mementos and prize money. Even while
they honor toppers their idea of equality could be felt. Everyone is equal .Some
are more equal than others.
Above 98% are given Rs 25000/-
95% and above get Rs 10,000/-
90 % and above have to be content with Rs 2,500/-
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