Wake up calls don't come in cuckoos anymore!! :) :) :)
I wake up every day to the sound of birds chirping or to the usual sound of my mom shouting at me...”Dei...Time 6.45 da!!! Late agiduchu!!!!Go get ready for office...” ;) But this Friday it was different. When I woke up (earlier than usual…I woke at 5.45 itself in fact), all I could hear was lots of screaming and total ruckus on the road in front of our house.
To my surprise, I found myself looking at a 500 odd group of people sitting on the pavements below as if they were all spectators waiting for an important event to happen. I got too curious and tiptoed myself out of the house and went below to enquire what was actually happening. What I heard from the people there came as a real shocker for me.
I’ve heard of incidents where people wait for ration cards, instances where people wait for casting their votes in the ballot (even though they end up voting for the wrong guy in the end…that is an all together different issue :P). This is the FIRST time ever where I have seen people actually waiting in the queue to get admission forms for applying to this well known school in my locality!!! And that too for which grade?? You won’t believe it!! The people were getting forms for LKG!!! Would you believe that!!
To top that up, these folks have been waiting all night it seems, for what joy? To get admission for their kids and bring them as wonder kids right from this small age itself. I don’t get it. Are they trying to bring up kids or something else? What is it with parents going behind these apparently “top-notch” schools and fighting for admissions into these institutions? What is the problem if the kid doesn’t attend this school? Is this all really worth the trouble?
Haven’t you guys heard of anything called as “online admission forms”?? Why can’t you just fill them up online and save all of us the trouble? Think of it…because of all this commotion, there was a traffic snarl too. Ithula worstu enna na, overnight stay pannavangaluku police protection vera. Enna koduma sir ithu!!! *@#$%^&#%^**/#$%^*
The lighter side of this whole disaster cum comedy scene is that, I was surprised at how well we Indians make use of any opportunity thrown at us. Overnight, on the pavement, newspaper stalls had come, there was a chai-wala “refreshing” the folks waiting for such a noble cause, an umbrella salesman making his day there by selling umbrellas and the heights of all this was that, there was also a mini Tiffin and meals shop which sprung up on the road serving the people with snacks, dinner and breakfast too.
Gone were the days when education was important and everything else came next. Branding and brand value has not even spared our education system (which is already beyond bad these days). We are in an age where respect and dignity comes with a price tag. The more branded you are, much better is the respect you get. In the end, education has lost its value and the institution has filled up its shoes. Will this ever change? J
Love,
Karthik J