"No, not there!"....."Do not do that"....... "I told you so"......"You will study maths and not history!".... "You would know better that PAPPA knows the best"........ Well, if you are an Indian by birth and have also grown through a typical Indian way of upbringing, such lines would be etched somewhere in your hard-drive. Memories may be hazed, data retrieval may be slow and painful and yet all that you need to do is to look around and there you would find some parent (myself included) either scolding or asserting or lumping issues on a helpless child. And why only a child when he/she is biologically a kid.....here, in our culture, kids remain kids as long as their parent(s) is/are alive; his/her own kids being immaterial. So, for all of us at 2012'14, today's developments must have felt like an extension of "Papa is always right" culture but it was not so to be......! OK, Ok, oK.... coming to the point! Today, our much awaited (and equally delayed) foreign language capsule started. "Mandarin", as per some 'papa' at EBS, is the most useful and something as important as breathing and, thus, has to be learnt. Now, as mentioned a little while ago, WE would have probably accepted the lame argument (the whole reasoning too skewed to be shared here), but for the fact that such a decision had been preceded by almost six months of 'thought-cum-decision making process'. We had been asked both formally and informally; we were made to give inputs in writing and a whole lot of majority had voted for French/German to be taught. It was precisely for this reason that we found the whole idea of Mandarin (and the sudden awakening) pretty funny and sad at the same time. Indian or otherwise, no grown up person likes a situation wherein some one else, good/bad intentions apart, tries and lumps one's ideas on someone else's head!
And the results were so apparent. Barring a fistful of those who had voted for Mandarin during the whole 'thought-cum-decision making process', none of us wanted to sit in the class after lunch and the noise only grew when the faculty concerned did not arrive for 10 minutes (why the hell we people do not get used to such delays at EBS..... what, after all, are 10 minutes between friends!) And once the gentleman walked in and committed a cardinal mistake by highlighting his 'link' with EBS, things only grew worse. I have not ever sat through such a chaotic session in any educational facility in my life (may be that is why I am not a parliamentarian). I am not sure what impression that person would have carried back home from the session but it was a sad situation after a sad decision.
And when it comes to sad situations, हम नहीं सुधरेंगे attitude was always there to complicate the things. As usual, someone just decided to amend the timetable ..... yet again! (I am yet to understand why do we create such a big fuss about such small issues? Have not we joined EBS to study? ..... may be गुरुकुल concept would have been better and we should have taken संन्यास from worldly issues before stepping inside the EBS complex for next two years, leaving behind everything else!) So, suddenly two sections were left wondering when the students were made to squeeze into one classroom and timetable was simply thrown out of the window! Now, what do we call it? Sad or Funny? I am not sure about the texture but yes, it is simply unfortunate!
I got to witness something really funny yesterday (yes, funny!). There was some 'sudden' guest lecture (Now, please do not tell me that being a Wednesday, it should have been expected! It was not mentioned in the timetable..... period!). So, as the ritual is, the gates were sealed at 1330h sharp. Well, that is understood, courtesy our behaviour on such occasions. But the funny part was the fact that while exit out had been rightfully sealed, the security guard went a step ahead and barred the entry of the students who had ventured out! Now, that is something beyond comprehension. And to top it all, one faculty member did go in, leaving behind one such student in a state of absolute awe!
The sad state of 'projection system and screen duo' continues unabated! So many promises made, so many representations heard sympathetically and yet nothing has moved...... I am missing Mr Newton today! Only a great person could have described a phenomenon (like INERTIA in 17th century) that was to haunt us in 21st. Now that Mr Newton is gone for good about 380 years, he must be smiling at all this..... who would not!
Anyway guys, you too keep smiling!
Ni Hao!!
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