Idea about AAP

You are not the real candidate, the real candidate is the idea.

Transformation of AAP  from the margins of civil society movement into a successful political party has been nothing short of a fairy tale. Almost a month has passed since they formed government with outside support of Congress – the party whom they criticized unrelentingly – and throughout the period they have been put to scrutiny by critics and followers alike. They have been point of discussions not only  in premier television shows but also among otherwise politically less active netizens.

In this write up I will try to analyze the idea of AAP. I have the used the word “idea” because I want to discuss it from the idealistic  point of view. Realistic factual abberations, like Binny’s revolt or vigilantism of Bharti will be overlooked.

Lack of alternative:

Success of AAP does not emanate from personality cult, but it is rooted in failure of existing apathetic, corrupt and manipulative political system which is unable to meet peoples rising expectations. As people become literate and aware of comparative realities, the demand for better governance is inevitable. However, in absence of alternative political paradigm, either people had turned apolitical (educated middle class) or kept on voting on issues which have not changed (rather, degenerated further into factionalism) since Indira Gandhi introduced populism in India.

Limitations of civil society movement:

In absence of alternatives, various civil society groups took up the issue of good governance on various forum (judiciary, right to information, protest, petitions etc.) which produced some desirable changes. However, these changes have been too slow rather than paradigmatic in nature. The inertia of existing political elites have been too much to overcome by reformative measures alone. The ones who can make changes are the one’s with the vested interest. In such case, any quality outcome from parliament was too much to expect.

The apathy of government to engage with civil society (unless their political clout is at stake) and even use of propaganda and force to suppress such movements have been detrimental to morality of civil society movements. It is unfortunate that the first response of state against the protesters (Delhi Gang Rape case, POSCO case, Kudankulam Nuclear plant)  has been invariably use of police or shutdown the transport system. Discrediting activism either by saying they are foreign funded or anti-nationalist, narrows the room for dissent in democracy. Limitations of reformative civil movements were never more so apparent, when shamelessly politicians asked anti-corruption activists to challenge current system either by joining politics or watch helplessly the anarchy.

The Idea of AAP:

AAP stands for wish of people to be governed better, idea of change, idea of people’s supremacy,  and demoralizing immorality in existing political system. It stands for courage of civil society to challenge apathetic state and synchronizing it with ground realities. The success of AAP has already forced political parties to change their approach. If nothing else, atleast it spooked them to pass Lokpal Bill (after 40+ years). It is rightly said monopoly leads to inefficiency and corruption. Alternative that AAP presents, also rekindles the faith that civil society can and will take courageous steps to correct aberrations in state. Politicians need to realize that democracy is not government by politicians, rather by people and for the people.

The reality can never be ideal. AAP has long way to go to achieve the idea. However, it keeps my faith in democracy and civil society alive. It gives me courage to be idealistic. After all, AAP is not the candidate, it is the idea which is the real candidate.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Have you ever felt that you are stuck in a moment and you can not get out of it? I do not know about you but I surely have felt that way for a long time. I always wonder why people do most of the stuff, they do? I have heard people say, they want to do MBA or higher studies or prepare for civil cervices. But question is do they really want to do that or it is simply because they satisfy certain requirements these options need and hence it is a popular choice among such people.

If you are the one who is making such a decision then ask yourself, “Why do you want to do this?”  If you really want to do it, then certainly you should be able to answer the question aptly. Once you have thought (promptly) your answer, read further.
Unless your answer without further query, clearly explains how this will give you ultimate satisfaction or happiness in your life, probably you are simply following a trend, and so, this is not what you really want. By ultimate happiness I mean, ultimate state of happiness; nothing else you can do which will make you happier than that, so it should be end of your search for happiness.

Take example of a guy who wants to do MBA. If he wants to do it just because he will get a high paying job in a respected company then in my view he is just following the trend. There always will be a higher paying job or more respected company than his current employment so he will never achieve a state of ultimate happiness, where there is no next step. Reply should be able to answer fundamental question of his needs and not a variable state which itself will never be constant. If whatever you think will make you happy, itself is not constant then how will you ever achieve ultimate state. But if he answers, he likes to manage things and enjoys organizing stuff then he deserves the profession. First person can be at the top of world and still won’t enjoy it or second can be managing a small group in a small firm and will make most of it. Do higher studies if study really interests you or you enjoy sharing knowledge and not because you have a good CPA. Go in administrative job if you want to contribute to society and you have motivation to solve civil problems.

Most of the times, you can not do what you want to do because of complicated social equations. There is nothing wrong in following the trend, but realizing that your real happiness lies somewhere else at least you will try to find opportunity to do the right thing. I enjoy teaching and love getting involved in social work. I will fight for my happiness, so should you.

Beyond obvious lies deserted dreams

Sometimes I wonder the allure of Indian economic progress is anything more than an attractive trailer of a poor comedy movie, where you are lured in the movie hoping it to be good only to find the only comic scene was in the trailer; rest is just stale old tale. 

Few things we must be proud of, even in this economic crisis we managed to pull above 8% GDP growth where rest of the world reeled under the massive economic crisis (only exception to China). While in coming future, Europe and US is supposed to face a severe economic uncertainty, we can safely say that India will still grow over 7%. Few more things which our PM or Government never forget to mention that India is becoming a superpower with major geopolitical influence. To be frank it fills my heart with pride, if these will not then what else would. Recession is only because India is growing and with economic growth it is inevitable. So recession is also a sign of growing Indian prosperity. There are always a few words in all speeches and plans which make you think Government has genuine concern for all of us; inclusive growth, equitable, social justice, poverty alleviation etc. 

If you liked the trailer, believe me you are not going to like the movie.  It never has been a happy ever after movie after the Indian independence. Things have changed and now the way we are taught and primed to think has fogged our eye sight where we are unable to see beyond the alluring trailer. 

Let us start with some blatant facts. India ranks 134 in Human Development Index (HDI) out of 187 countries (UN development council releases the statistics).  Just to give a prospective, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are better placed than us. Last year India was at 119th position. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Srilanka do better than us in gender equality. 

According to most conservative, pro government Tendulkar committees report, India has poor population of 37% (more than one third). Just to point out Tendulkar committee report was the basis for government to decide Rs. 32 and Rs. 25 for BPL which we all know shows how divorced our government is from reality. Even based on this report India has now more poor people than its total population at the time of independence. That says a great deal of great Indian dream.

However if we go by National Smaple Survey data (collected by Government), this percentage is 76% in rural areas and 68% in urban areas. This data is based on how many people can not afford to meet their basic nutritional requirement. One more interesting fact I would like to point out the aim of Tendulkar committee was to show that overall percentage of poverty has decreased, so basically they reduced the BPL to an absurd value to meet the desired. 

Recent death of more than 450 children (who also were found to be severely malnourished) this year in UP alone within 4 months due to encephalitis tells a grieving story of negligence. This is a recurring occurrence in state and still apathy towards it from either state or central government is deplorable.

Maharshtra which boasts highest GDP in the country (and Mukesh Ambani’s pride 600 room house) has topped in the farmer suicide chart by 15,964 deaths in last 15 year time. Staggering total of 256,913 farmers’ suicide in India in last 15 years. The data is from government agency. 

India has maximum number of people, nearly 57% of whole world’s population, who do not have proper sanitation facility and who defecate in open. Again this is UN data.

!3% of child population in urban area spends their childhood in slums. 

We can pile more data, but the point is the country where more than 70% people can not afford to reach their nutritional value how justified is our obsession with GDP. What does economic powerhouse and target growth of 9% in 12th plan, mean to those people who commit suicide? Isn’t inclusion of social equality, economic justice, parity and equity a mere farce? My ire is not against the condition but the negligence to take corrective action. 

Mary Parker Follet had said that, “Home of my soul is in the state”. This is one the most poetic line I have read in my life. This means I am so integrated in the state that state represents me and I represent the state. Can 70% population who can not feed themselves, farmers committing suicide and many more say the same thing for our Indian government? She says it is only possible in participative democracy. Just to give you feel how did you feel when Anna was agitating? Did you not feel that through Anna a part of you was heard and you were part of system? That same feeling do you feel on any other day? Do protesters at Kundankulam feel the same way? Does Iromila Sharma feel the same way? Why do we feel that psychological alienation from our own government? The answer lies in the fact that you will only feel that integration when soul of state also lies in you. 

In a line Burns had summarized it, “In representative democracy, liberty of individual vanishes in ballot box in 2 seconds, after which people consume others politics." We have been consuming others politics for long. Sadly our state’s heart lies in those billionaires dream that see death through poverty a natural cleaning process of social evolution. Policies are not made to equitable growth rather for enhancing capital market policy which naturally breeds disparity and where poverty is not natural a phenomenon.

I will start with neo-liberalism or so called our PM Manmohan Singh’s great economic reform. The fact is it was not a brainchild of Manmohan singh, it was simply a forced coercion of IMF which we had to follow due to some unavoidable reasons. NO, he did not have a great innovative dream. So our puppet should stop taking credit for the economic changes he had to introduce. From the day one we were made to believe that it is an economic reform while social agitation like Occupy Wall Street would beg to differ. Since the introduction of neo liberalism the disparity has increased many folds and will continue to widen. I am not against free competition but at least people should have a similar base to start with. Do you not feel that a farmer’s son had inherent disadvantage in competition as compared to a well to do family’s kin? Is it a fare competition at all? Without proper basic education, nutrition, health facility, drinking facility, electricity or even sanitation how he is supposed to compete in this world? The question is if government is promoting free competition then whose responsibility is to provide equal chance? And if government had failed in providing these due to any reason (say corruption) then whose accountability is it? Should not government be more accountable and stop playing interdepartmental or state-centre blame game and for once take some stringent action? Have you realized in only last 20 years all millionaires and billionaires have popped up?  Do you know India’s GDP is primarily driven by domestic consumption and NOT by export as envisioned earlier, otherwise we wouldn’t have such big current account deficit.  This is the only reason why we did not feel that much slowdown in economic recession.

12th 5 year plan envisages a public private partnership (PPP). It promotes corporatization of lands. For many of us land today means an investment, capital and housing needs, but not for 70% population who still see it as source of livelihood, social justice, food security, sustenance and matter of dignity. By corporatization, marginal land owners will again be reduced to feeble daily wage workers while private corporate will mint money. It will simply increase the availability of daily wage workers who will be exploited at the will of private sector.  Was not this the reason in the first place why land reforms were introduced and jamindari was abolished? We all know how land accusation in UP has angered farmers due to inadequate, forcible accusations by state itself. Later all those property are sold to real estate agents who makes extravagant profit while farmers are paid marginally.  It would not be harsh to say that government forgot our farmers after 2nd 5 year plan. Farming still provides livelihood to 55% of people.

Let us talk about some government mindset. Government has failed to address critical issues of labors in organized and unorganized sector. Liberal, corporate oriented labor mindset has resulted in exploitation of people working in these sectors. To make market look lucrative Government has made weak laws which enables corporate (MNC) to exploit employees. How sad is it that MNC’s do not give holidays on Indian Independence Day but it gives holiday on American day. Unless a country respects its people, MNCs will keep treating Indian human resource as expendables. The comparison of safety standard followed by same MNC in India and in western country should be enough to validate my point. Weak nuclear liability bill is nothing but a simple manifestation of it.

Planned privatization of education and health sector will not realize in empowerment of people. This is simply because when goals at the heart of policy formulation lie in maximization of profit, it will never result in welfare. In most of the developed country health has been public (governmental) concern. If government is serious about providing health service then it should take serious substantial step to achieve it. Without the lack of political will, every policy will be a failure.

I will touch a bit on AFSPA (Armed force special power act) which is operational in J&K and North East. As many of us profess strong law is necessary but they must remember what is even more important is strong accountability. Our laws have weak accountability so in case of failure, we argue we require a strong law. If accountability is proper probably we will not require strong laws. To mask our failure we enact these draconian laws. Strong laws should go with strong safeguards too, otherwise nearly 1700 unidentified bodies in J&K would not have happened where army has authority to shoot at will without any consequence.

The question I would like to raise, can you see beyond the fog where people are in distress and any % of GDP means nothing to them, or bailout of Kingfisher Airlines (arrogant SOB) is our priority.  Government must remember it is simply an instrument to achieve people’s goal, it is not an end itself.

A Tale of two Brothers

Prologue: Big “B” Vs small “b”

It is movies who made Amitabh Bachchan a God. His portrayals of the “ones” who fight against injustice, a dare devil who fears no one and stands for truth almost lured us to believe that he is “the one” himself. I wonder how delusional we are to believe what ever is portrayed on celluloid is the truth. After all he is simply an actor and a really good one who in real life is far fetched from his portrayals.
His pleaded apology to MNS on Jaya’s remark about speaking in Hindi does not come as a shock to me. I never expected anyone from movie industry to have real guts, but what shocked me was the urgency he showed in apologizing to MNS. I used to think he is a man of beliefs and he will certainly stand for what is right, but the way whole family stooped low showed me I was certainly deluded. His recent praise for Shiv Sena chief just after Shah Rukh incident affirms his low character. He is a man of weak conscience who is simply wiggling his tail to show his loyalty to his mean master. Next time he portrays a man, who stands up for what he believes in, my respect for him as an actor will grow infinitely.
Actors should not be confused with real life heroes. They are on screen because they can elude us in believing what they are portraying. So it is wrong to have high expectations from the actors, but the thing is, people believe in them and they affect our thinking. Unless we can distinguish between their personal characters from screen character, we may always be in for shock.

Chapter One: A Tale of two Brothers
Under the guidance of Balasaheb Thackeray, both brothers (cousins) Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray learnt hooliganism. Unluckily nephew Raj learned it better than son Uddhav. To fill the void of thrown both brothers started a feud whose heat common men in Maharashtra is feeling now.
It was or is never a fight for Marathi Manus well being. It has always been a fight for identity. After Raj separated from Sena (formed MNS), brought and executed the ideology of Sena, better than Sena. He was more aggressive in creating hatred for north Indians, posing as only well wisher of Marathi Manus and resorting to street violence for publicity. These were the ideology of Sena and now Sena does not know how to win hearts of hardcore Marathi Manus (who thinks Maharashtra is for Marathi’s only). If you dig deep into politics, you will find these regional parties usually do not have a genuine political agenda. Due to such restricted presence in country these parties do not have a national issue to fight election with and so they have to resort to small state issues or create issues out of nothing. Without any prominent issue in sight MNS and Sena has created a boogie issue of Marathi Manus. Both parties know that they can not win the election but if they can prove their loyalty to Maharashtra, probably they would be able to capture a small section of vote with certainty. To overshadow each others loyalty to Marathi Manus both party have indulge in various stupid acts; beating north Indians, violence against news channel, bad mouthing about Sachin,  Anil Ambani, Sahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, slapping legislate for taking oath in Hindi and many more. Whole idea of creating a difference between north Indians and Marathi hurts the basic sentiments of being Indian, which provides you freedom to move and live freely inside India. The loss of Sena in election has fuelled this hooliganism that was dormant before election. How long this will go, no body knows especially with such rubbish political system.

Chapter Two: The Sena way
No party in Maharashtra can say that they are not practicing “Sena Way”. MNS only enriched the legacy of Sena while BJP is equally guilty of keeping a blind eye on the whole issue. Though never actively supporting the hooliganism, BJP always participated as a bystander. Only after defeat in recent election, BJP for the first time is speaking against its15 year old ally.
Congress always known for serving hot & cold at the same time, (Telangana issue; first proposing and then backing off) never showed real initiative to curb the problem. Always assuring to take action when matter is hot and then coldly shelving the issue, has so far worked for the Congress. In recent times creating buzz by giving taxi permits only to Marathi’s, it stooped the level of Sena. Earlier before election, Congress suddenly felt the dire need to erect statue of Shivaji at the cost of dying farmers in Vidrbha to prove its Marathi loyalty.
Everyone in Thackeray family is Marathi first and then Indian, my fault; everyone in Thackeray family is neither Marathi nor Indians.

Epilogue: Never ending story
It is shocking to see how long it takes our Prime minister or President to acknowledge the problem and do something about it. When somebody will say, it is enough and stops this nonsense. When somebody will bring these hooligans to their sense or we will keep quite and hope that these people will get tired and finally stop themselves.

And we say they are Racist

Recent attack on Indians in Australia certainly baffled the whole India and matter was blown so out of proportion that I was puffing answering calls about my well being. Media daily conducting interviews and writing articles about Australia being racist and busy collecting proof for it, seemed like madness India media is famous for. What happened in Sydney and Melbourne can not be justified by saying anything, it was a criminal act, whether was racial in nature or not is a debatable issue. Some of them might have racial content in it, but all of them, certainly not. Why every attack on Indians has to be racial in nature; it could simply be a case of wrong timing and wrong place. Neither a mugger waiting in dark has any intention to mug somebody with racial intent nor a group of drunk youth who just want to bash somebody because they are high. Indians might have been easy target because of their weak physique and humble nature; so would be any hooligan’s preferable choice. I will discuss the issue in later posts but first let us talk about our own backyard.

Why to bother about racial discrimination in India when we have variety of discrimination to pick up from. It hurts me when somebody says me that you can not work in Mumbai because you are Bihari. It hurts me when my mother asks me the caste of my friend, so that she can use separate cutlery kept for my dalit friends. It hurts most when I see old poor men told to sit on the floor in a general compartment (railway train) even when there is enough space for him on the birth. With everybody judging everybody it feels like living under a scanner and worst part is you can see hatred for yourself in their eye and you can do nothing about it. Rich in India treat poor as trash, higher caste despise lower caste, Assamese hate Hindi speaking, Biharis are not allowed to work in Maharashtra, every dark child has nick name Kallu, English speaking population snobs non English speaking; with lot more to list, who cares about racial discrimination. I do not have to give any example to you to visualize any of these situations, otherwise you have been blind enough to realize. Discriminate of any kind should be intolerable. We claim that attacks on Indians in Australia are racial in nature, but what about murder and rape of foreign tourists in India. I believe most of us will say they are not racial in nature; because we are brown and only whites are racial. What if these cases are no different then what happened in Melbourne and Sydney.

Issue of racism in Australia is not new. Ugly text messages, comments and postures relating to Aboriginals, Muslims, Jews, Indians and refugees are little common then other countries, so Australia is racist. But one has to understand that Australia is a relatively new country and started as penal colony. Its culture has never been so polite and sledging has always been integral part of Australian sports. With their huge physique they look daunting and solving matter with brutal force is in their nature. It is still in the process of building its reputation as multicultural society. Rules against racism are very strict but it will take time to change the mindset of whole country. By opening the door of immigration it is trying to build an image of multicultural society. Just like any other country Australia has some problem but I am happy that here people do not judge me for my caste, economic condition or my education status. I do not have to worry that people are judging me or at least they do not show it.

This summer # Launceston to Kolkata

Guess, what I was doing when I was not surfing? I had lots of expectations from my last trip to India. It was an eventful summer.

Early morning my journey started from Launceston. Plan was to fly to Melbourne and then to India via Singapore. I always feel comfortable as long as I can feel solid ground below my feet, or in other words, I am a little afraid of flying. Even when I am up in the air, I feel more comfortable when plane is flying over ground than when it flies over water bodies. I know it does not make any difference at that height, but still I can not help it.

There are few things I like about airports. You get to see people from different country, tourists squeezed between heavy backpacks, rave of emotions at arrival & departure and off course free internet to pass time. Few things will always elude my comprehension though. I never understood what pleasure do people get in pushing 7 Kg trolley, for carrying their 0.8 kg laptop? Why people rush to toilet immediately after pilot switches off seat belt sign? Why even sophisticated people would grin to air hostess to get another sachet of cheap peanuts? But hey, who am I to judge?

Usually I love to listen to my iPod to pass time, but this time I had to study Thermodynamics for BARC examination. After 11 long hours of study, flight finally reached Kolkata. It was almost midnight and I was feeling tired. At immigration, officer asked me that why I have not written Quarter no. in my address. I felt a strong urge to ask him that “Is he going to send me Christmas card?” But, instead I quietly wrote my Quarter no. Mother, Neelu Didi and Jeeja Ji were waiting at arrival to receive me. After that, whole night we kept talking about Australia and India.

Susheel, Neelu didi’s son is live wire in the family. Mama (uncle) do this, mama do that, mama come and play with me or in nutshell I had a year exercise in three days. Once, Neelu didi asked him to check whether I was awake or slept. He came to me, sprinkled cold water on my face to wake me up and then said back to his mother that mama is awake now. My mother told him not to disturb me in revising the notes. He said to her that he only wants to study with me and after that you can guess what would have happened. None of us studied.

After BARC examination, we (I, mother, Neelu didi, Jija Ji and Susheel) went to Dkchineshwar Kali temple on Ganga shore and for a drive around town (Victoria memorial, Science city etc.). I am very thankful to Neelu Didi’s family for great hospitality and lovely tour of the city.

One good thing about returning to India after a gap is you can instantly realize things are changing rapidly in India. Two changes which stand out of the rest are visual development in Bihar and increased fashion awareness. One thing which really struck me was sunglasses; it is becoming new fashion among youngsters. Now we are one step away from becoming perfect Gandhi’s monkey (sunglasses for eyes and iPod for ears).  With big burger from McDonald in our mouth, we will be just perfect. Shopping Malls and supermarket are becoming new trend in urban society. Mall is a good place to hang out for love birds and see things which one could have bought if they had that kind of money. I always feel like outsider when I am in a mall. When I see elderly women walking in t-shirts, feeling uncomfortable, and just trying to keep up with the new trend or people digging their way through pile of clothes for finding cheap ones, makes me think are we trying too hard to be acceptable in modern society or society has lost its tenacity to accept people for who they are? I will give you an example. I still use my Nokia 1100 mobile. So many have commented that I should upgrade and it does not suit me. As long as it does the job, I am not going to throw it away just because someone thinks it is outdated. Mobile started to become popular almost 6 years ago and since then so many models have become outdated. In the beginning it was necessity but now it is more of status symbol of how modern you are.

Kolkata is among four largest cities in India and has an international airport but city did not turn out as I had expected. City was congested, dirty and unmaintained just like its international airport. Condition of famous “City Tram” was nothing like in the stories I had heard from my mother about her visit to city in her childhood. Staying with Neelu didi confirmed my fear, why I do not want to work in big cities. They hardly interacted with their neighbors. Neelu didi used to take Shusheel to City Park every Sunday so that he can play freely. For rest he the week he has no place to be himself. He is like a dolphin in a bath tub. I want to live in a place where in the evening I can put couple of chairs in front lawn and see kids playing on the street while talking to my neighbors.

May be I am outdated and unable keep up with the modern changing society OR may be I want to hang on things which makes me happy and defines me.

A History Lesson Never Learnt

Almost a year ago a surge of anger run almost every Indian’s mind and here we are, a year after Mumbai terrorist attack, already ready to forget every thing at its first anniversary. After media will remind everybody, few will bother to light candles and mumble few words while for rest of us it will be a nightmare which never happened.

For almost a week, India has never felt so helpless and vulnerable. Ten people took whole India ransom at the point of gun. Apart from manslaughter and mental scar, it brought unrepairable damage to Indian stature in the world community. Many brave men lost their life fighting those terrorist while deputy chief minister of the state was busy giving statement “Bade shahron mein aise ek adh hadse hote rahte hain”. I remember tension among the public was so high that Government was on its toes pretending to take strict and strategic action for future. Among many things promised, sacking of Shivraj Patil is the only visible difference which seemed to be actioned. But is that enough? Then chief minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh is a Union minister now and two weeks before 26/11 anniversary, R. R. Patil is reinstated as home minister of Maharashtra while martyr Hemant Karkare’s bullet proof vest investigation seems to reached an impasse after bullet proof vest went missing. How conveniently politicians can make break promise, while people like Karkare foolishly romantic in the idea of patriotism, without fear sacrifices their lives. Many people lost their lives just because our Government did not care. Bullet proof vests were substandard and repeated request of police reinforcement help was not actioned.

I remember the rage in media, public and everyone united, shouting “NO MORE of this shit”. I called my mother on 28th and asked her how is atmosphere in India. She said “Everybody is shocked and full of anger. If Government does not do anything, there will be a riot.” I wonder what happened what happened to that anger. With time that anger turned into fear, fear to go out, fear of bomb blast in trains and fear of our lives. We are OK as long as it is not us. When will we care as a nation? Do we need another attack to wake us up again? How dumb we are that we are selecting same rubbish people again to represent us in governing bodies. We need quality Government which care about us and for that we as a nation have to care about whom we are selecting. How come irresponsible man like Shivraj Patil could stay that long as home minister of India even after his repeated failures? Why we are always back stabbed every time we extend our hand for friendship to Pakistan and still we do not learn from it? Is it enough to just remember martyrs of Kargil and Mumbai attack for a couple of years and then forget about them? Just burning candles is not enough for somebody’s memory and their families. Problem needs to be solved.

In the memory of Shri. Hemant Karkare, Shri. Ashok Kamte, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and many more.

Another Brick in The Wall

Childhood is most beautiful and innocent stage of life where every touch makes you tickle, small things make you laugh, love is true, hate is volatile and friendship is unshakable. Every moment is full of energy and joy. It is a state free from tension, deceit and competition. Their world is, as it appears to be.
Life does not need to be a race for positions, if you want to enjoy it, you have to let go the race, take a stroll and enjoy every moment of it. You might not win the race but certainly you will make most of it. Life has a lot to offer apart from competition.

Few days back, I was watching TV news on Kapil Sibbal’s proposal to make 10th board examination optional. After an interesting group discussion, news channel was showing responses of parents and students on the same topic. I was shocked and disappointed by some of the parents’ and students’ reactions. Couple of shocking responses were:
“It will discourage competition among students and there will be no difference between the topper and rest of the good students. We will never know who topped the school”
“What will be difference between two students who score 97% and 95%?”
Above responses made me realize how steep cut throat competition is in 10th standard. Should a child of fifteen years old be exposed to such level of competition? Isn't it the case that every year number of students committing suicide is increasing? Earlier students used to commit suicide because they used to fail, but now students are also committing suicide because they could not top the school or they could not achieve 95% marks. This is madness. The idea of a student scoring 97% is better than a student scoring 95% is simply absurd. This defeats the purpose of education, which to educate and gain knowledge; and not to outscore someone in the examination.

I personally welcome the idea of making 10th board examination optional. Grading system will continue to provide healthy competition among students and will remove unnecessary fight over 1 or 2 percent. Other good thing about proposal is students will be accessed over the year and not just on the basis of a day’s performance.
I am in favor of keeping 12th board examination as there should be a standardize school leaving examination to bring all students on same platform. Anyways, 10th board marks had no real significant career value except getting admission in a good higher secondary school.

Now, I want to focus on why I condemn such cut throat competition. Firstly, it puts extra pressure on child throughout the year and it keeps mounting till results are declared. After that either his ego gets boosted or he has to face never-ending sarcastic remarks about how somebody else did well in examination than him.

Parents are the sole reason of this pressure. Their constant nagging to do better and how it is related to their prestige generates a fear among student that they can not fail their parent’s expectation. You can always find some parents bragging about their child who tops school in first standard or disappointed for their child not doing well in second grade. Parents start making their child’s performance their prestige and social status as soon as a child enters the education system. To feel proud of one’s child performance is one thing but to make it a social status and ego is dangerous. From beginning parents start pushing their child to the limit and with that starts no more child time. Decreasing number of children playing on streets and spending more time with home tutor is the sad picture of reality. Last Holi I was shocked to see my neighbors’ kids studying during Holi. When I asked my neighbor, he told me his examinations are one month after so he has to study. I do not know how these kids will learn any other human emotion apart from competitiveness.

Life is too competitive but one's childhood should not crumble under this pressure. Let us not disturb their world. Let kids be kids and have them their moment which they will cherish forever. Let us not steal their childhood for our false pride.