"Man is a social animal"
~Socrates.
~Socrates.
Statutory Warning: This post is injurious to your sense of humour.
A child is born. He cries out "waine"... "waine"....(well it is the traditional sound, got nothing to do with Bruce Wayne). Biologically, the baby tries to suck in some oxygen into his tiny lungs (though he actually gets a mixture of some other as well). However, my spiritual bent of mind (if I am not out of it, as many readers may have started to think), tells me that the baby cries in the thought of the pains (and the little gains that may come with it) that awaits him out in this world. And how does the nurse try to stop him? yes, by bribing him with the "colostrum"...
[if the reader was careful enough, it might have not unnoticed, that I have presumed a masculine gender of the baby. It is just a reflection of the male oriented society, we have not yet got rid of... hope to write on it some other time]
Let us assume that the child has survived all the thick and thin his life had to offer him for 16 long years. (also assuming that he was quite good enough at studies to have passed an academic year, just in a geographical year.) Now, the day for the class 10 results arrive...
The boy is tensed, not because he fears scoring low, but because of the consequences that would engulf him later. His parents were less tensed even before their own boards results, than they are now. The mother has not left the least reason for GOD to complain, thanks to her prayers and all...
The father stands, grim faced, with his hands tucked tight either in his armpits or the pockets to keep them warm...( I believe the readers can anticipate the necessity of such an action). When the boy finally arrives with his report card and shows a hefty "sum" of 96%, joy knows no bounds for the family. The father congratulates the son, trying not to show the joy. The mother prepares to feed the child as if he had been unfed for centuries. The father feels bloated when he announces his son's results to his friends and colleagues...
Now the real trouble begins... Engineering or Medical??? (the debate is a good one for those lacking in debate topics; it is however assumed that other "streams" of "Higher education" do not flow into any ocean, but dry up in the "Hanva nala" or "Varka nala").
A boy of sixteen years of age and yet no sense of judgement... so thinks the grey-haired folks...( no offense to great men with great experience and "great expectations"). The boy is suddenly cut off from all forms of social life; no friends, no family, only PCMB (where P=Physics, C=Chemistry, M=Mathematics, B=Biology). Television is made into an Idiot box and suddenly, the world seems to have alienated the boy!!!
[A little calculation:
Boy =~ Man = social animal.
Now, boy-social life =social animal -social life = animal life.]
Hence, the boy starts to lead the life of an animal, being driven by the whims of the parents, forced with all sorts of dreams and fantasies that can be realized on by following the path shown to him now...
Considering all went well, the IIT-JEE, the AIEEE, the WBJEE, the AIPMT, the AFMC, the BITSAT, the VITEEE, the KITE, the AIIMSE... uff and what not... the boy again arrives to the same day as 2 years back... the results... but with a gigantic twist!!!
The computer screen reads :"NOT QUALIFIED"..... endlessly...
The day starts feeling like 21.12.2012.
[In public interest, I am forced to skip the events that follows for a year, keeping in mind that a revision of these traumatic situations of student life may evoke epilepsy among those of us who have it, or arouse some other illness I may not be aware of...]
Now the boy has successfully secured an AIR, good enough to get him into an institute recognized by the Govt. of India as a National Institute of Technology. He goes to the college, full of energy, which he felt lacking in, since the past three years...
The 1st week he is so full of liveliness that he feels he can do wonders... 2nd week an eerie feeling grasps him that he is not being able to understand what is being taught in class (sometimes he even fails to understand their language!!!) ... 3rd week he doubles his "Attention" and trebles his efforts to understands what the profs try to prove to them on the blackboards (which are nevertheless green in color!). In intense despair, an "Alzheimer -ic feeling creeps into him. Determined to save his soul from being damned, he stops all efforts to follow lectures (and decides to follow only lecture notes, if at all they mean anything!!!)... But how can one make notes when he fails to understand even the language in which it is being delivered?? Consequence: The "man" , leaves note-making to his class mates and goes off to sleep!!!
By this time, the man has also discovered that all the physical, social, cultural. and psychological education, that have been imparted to him in these 18 years are inadequate for an Engineer!!!.... He still needs "Rectification"!!! (Caution: no pun intended!!!).
[A little engineering: Consider the man as an AC signal, with fluctuating moods, energy and actions. Now, as we rectify him, we lose the alternating part, which was actually the source of all jovial activities. With a constant, monotonic, DC signal, the man cannot take the loads of all the stuffs that he intended to perform on the 1st day of the college...]
Thus, the man' s conscience tells him its better to sleep at home than in the class... so, class bunks start.
Exams come close, but the man opens the door a little late (as he was soundly asleep!!!). He finds he knows nothing... but only that he has been "DEBARRED" from appearing in the examinations for inadequate attendance (Mark my words).
The man feels undone... when he was in the class, no one bothered to know if his attention was being aptly satisfied.
And now its the same attention that the authorities seek!!! (irony intended... rust-proofing not guaranteed). What does attendance signify? that the student has absorbed all the essence that the teacher secreted (not excreted) in the lectures??? Or that the student merely warmed the bench???
This develops the 1st trait of a future bureaucrat : " Korruption "... From the next semester, he never forgets to set up a Proxy attender for his damned classes...