If I were to ask everyone here, which were your best days in life? I’d hardly go wrong in my guess.
William Wordsworth wrote, ‘The Child is the father of a man’, which roughly means the character that we form as children stays with us into our adult life.
I never believed in this until two anecdotes in my life enforced me to change my perceptions.
It was a warm sunny day and I was enroute to Pune from Mumbai along the scenic NH4.
On the way I halted at a food stall. While savouring my hot cup of tea, I heard
few terrible abuses hurled at someone. I turned to see the poor lad working at
that stall, at the receiving end. The owner of the place, a bald burly boastful
man apparently wasn’t happy with the boy’s pace of work. Those words were
obnoxious, demeaning and horribly hurtful for a young boy.
I couldn’t stop myself from flashing my departmental ID in that man’s face and
said, “One more word to the boy and you forget you ever owned this place!”
I could see a hint of remorse and fear in his eyes. Trust me, this has been the
best use of my ID till date.
I called the boy to sit beside me and had another cup of tea
with him.
Sarthak, that 12-year-old boy had to leave his schooling to support his younger
sister’s education. His parents, being agricultural labourers were often hit by
the complexities of cyclical unemployment, and took up odd jobs to make their
ends meet. Coming from a nearby hamlet, working at this food stall was the best
job he could find. I had a rather long comforting talk with him, left him a
nice tip and hopefully sweeter memories. I did go back to his owner to persuade
him to support Sarthak financially and be kinder to him.
Another warm sunny day, I was travelling along the same scenic NH4 but 850 kms away to Bengaluru where I had gone to visit my cousin. She and her husband had had a good career in IT and were looking to roll out a start-up. Just another day in a Bangalorean life!
But I was excited to meet my nephew, whom I had last met when he was still a
toddler. But my excitement fizzed out soon. He looked seemingly unfit for his
age. He was just 13 and had glasses thicker than mine, and alarmingly obese for
his age.
I found out that he wakes up at 5 am and studies for an hour before going to
school, returns at 4 pm and rushes for his IIT coaching. After dinner he spends
an hour on homework and just gets half an hour me-time, which he spends with
his PlayStation. He hardly spent any time to play outside, even on the weekends.
When I shared my concern with his parents, my brother-in-law quipped, “C’mon
Ankit, not everyone is as lucky as you to end up a good public sector job, he
has to face cut-throat competition ahead. And I want him to study and work in
the Silicon Valley, don’t you feel so?”
I replied quickly, “Even I want to see him working in the States but with a
healthier body and mind!”
There was an eerie long silence to follow.
I know for sure that this did not spoil my sister’s marital life as till last
evening, they haven’t filed for divorce.
And btw, coincidentally, my nephew’s name is Sarthak!
Two Sarthaks, 850 kms away, yet a similar struggle for
childhood.
Sarthak figuratively means meaningful, yet we are unable to find meaning in
their lives?
Dear friends, why does the Kaleidoscope of their lives always display a dark
image?
Is this the new Indian reality in our villages, slums and metropolitan cities?
The final indicator of a country’s independence is the way its children live. A
child is inherently curious about the world, relationships, understanding how
things work. As adults, our blinkered and conditioned self prevents us from
truly exploring without prejudice.
Gandhiji said, ‘The greatest lessons in life are learnt from children, not from learned men.’
Our system took 34 long years to realize that something is inherently wrong with the way our kids are being educated. The National Education Policy, 2020 is still hopping over hurdles.
What can we do here?
Let us resolve to give our children the freedom of childhood, let us change our
schools from being textbook prisons to laboratories of exploration.
