Dotting the I s and crossing the Ts.

Hello! Happy New Year! & Welcome to my first post. Every year I promise myself, that I ll entertain my soul with something very novel, new and much different from what it has experienced ever before. And pretty much, till now, I have (fortunately or unfortunately) been able to keep up that promise. People close to me tell me that my way of thinking is different from the normal - some closest to me like my mom and dad even feel it's abnormal ;-) - while all I have ever stressed upon is to take lessons from life. It was indeed nice to sit in the INOX Theater on New Year eve (given that the chances for the availability of tickets are almost none) and watch "3 idiots" , Amir Khan's latest release. And what a start to my year when I found out that the essence of what I had been telling a few of my friends Rajesh, Subroto, Dhivya, KP, Ravi, Pooja, Arun etc. about life, success and the methods of teaching, all find reflection in some or the other part of the film.

The movie revolves around the lives of three intimate friends one of who is almost the mentor of the other two so-called idiots. Now, after watching the movie how do I call him - Rancho, Ranchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad or......anyway as Shakespeare once said: "Whats there in a name"? While introducing its touch of humor uncharacteristic to the modern Amir Khan movies (like Fanaah, TZP, Mangal Pandey or Gajini) it points out, with true sincerity and empathy towards students and due respect to the members of the teaching fraternity, the fatal narrow mindedness that  has crept into the society and plagued the minds of many-a-revered teacher today. Apart from being interesting and maintaining a very consistent story pace,the movie raises a few really uncanny and intriguing questions.

We are taught to develop within ourselves the killer instinct to remove competition. No one of us would have escaped the familiar advice "Life is a race..." and many among us are religiously following it to this date. Yet the film makes such a mockery of this concept that I doubt anyone would consider repeating this phrase for fear of being nicknamed "Virus".

"What is this No 1?", asks Ranchoddas. In fact even the University that I am currently studying in  has No 1 status. What does it mean and why is it given? By whom? Who has the power to? Can such grading be believed and to what extend are they transparent? And if yes, why are there disparities between two different reports? My dear friends, the Ans: SILENCE.

I have talked many times about the urgent need to reform our education system. Education itself is the biggest killer of the youth it educates (which in itself is a rare resource). Almost 6000 Indian students killed themselves in 2006 itself. Board exams, various entrance tests, professional school tests, even high school monthly exams are creating a spate of suicides in India’s student population, an age group that one would normally associate with potential and promise. Late in 2006, parliament member Naveen Jindal raised this question in India’s parliament, asking why there was a rising suicide trend amongst Indian students and how the government was tackling the issue. The answers he received from the H'ble Minister of Human Resource Development open a window into an antiquated, retrogressive, and retarded thinking pattern that pervade and plague the way India’s education system tests its students’ performances.
 But even though the movie asks certain pinching questions, at the end it has a beautiful answer too.
Baba Ranchoddas bikul sahi kehthe the "Bachcha, kabil bano kabil, kamyabi to saali jhak maarke peeche bhagegi!" - Child, chase excellence, success will follow. Now to get the translation of "jhak maarke" you will have to refer to Chatur's muthr-visarjan translation dictionary only!!
Anyway my signing off greetings: Jahan panah tussi great ho! Tohfa kubool karo..Happy New Year! START THINKING!!!