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ShareAs long as he is studying, he is only a number. To the school, he is a roll number. To his parents, he is simply marks. To the college he seeks admission, he is a percentage. If papa is asked by a complete stranger about his beta, pat comes the reply: "He got 92 per cent in SSC!"
Thirty years later, this SSC success story is dangling from a crowded Virar local, wondering what was so great about getting 92 per cent. He feels like shouting at the crowd that is pushing him around - "Hey, watch it, buddy, I got 92 per cent in SSC!" But chances are that he will be asked to shut by the crowd - "So what if you got 92 per cent! We're all school dropouts and you're still stuck with us!"
He can't help but wonder why mama and papa ruined his childhood by burdening him with coaching classes, stop him from playing galli cricket and lock up the television set?
"Go to your room and study the Pythagoras Theorem! You must come first in your class this year, beta." The kid goes to his room and studies the Pythagoras gibberish, completely oblivious of the fact that the Theorem can't teach him how to fix a flat tyre!
In fact, nothing he learns as a student equips him to deal with the realities of living.
As he hangs for his dear life from the crowded local train, the student wonders about Trigonometry. He also realises that his knowledge about the reproductive system of a flower or the abdominal segment of a cockroach doesn't help him change a light bulb?
On the other hand, as their son gets into higher studies, his parents wonder why he is taking longer to pass out than it takes them to repay the loan they took to put him through college! They are clueless when their son says he's taken a drop or has a backlog of last term's papers to clear! The parents learn much later in life that the word "failed" can be conveyed in many other ways.
When he survives the train journey and reaches home, the student wonders why the government wants to scrap the Class X board exams... Why not scrap the entire education system!
