Chop, Mix, Eat, Vomit and move on

You must be wondering what yuck tasting dish I made that my digestive system just gave up on it in a repulsive way! Alva... Well, I can't really blame you for thinking like that. Because I am pretty sure the brave volunteer who will take up the daunting task of eating my handiwork will have to go through a lot more than that.

That being said, there is something that all of us hate more than my cooking. That will be studying. (All the mugpots, kindly excuse) I actually ended up loving to hate studying. Arrhhh That blasted subject mathematics ! It is a making of Satan himself trying to communicate with us using a hodgepodge of numbers, alphabet and rather weird looking signs that seem to be distant but retarded cousins of the regular alphabet. I never felt like reading physics because I respected Newton's first law. Things is rest want to be in rest. So, if my books want to rest, paapa, let them rest. And the concepts of chemistry ... regardless of the amount of chemical locha in my brain, there was no trace of any precipitate left in my brain. Ever.

I am so glad that there are exams regularly. This means that I need to mug up only limited quantity to pass an exam. In my rich experience of being a student for as long as I remember, I have realized one thing. If say, I mug up for 2 hours and I get 60 marks, then if I mug up for 20 hours, I can get 95 marks. This means that the more time I spend on studying,(please read as scanning data and cramping it haphazardly in a memory device called brain) the more marks I get. It always boils down to one question. How much of my precious life am I willing to give up trying to learn stuff. And by learning, I mean trying to memorize and recollect the sequence of the series of words or a set of numbers that seems to make a pattern, but I absolutely have no clue what that means in reality. Well, I do study well. I come from a sanskari family. I know that if I get good marks, my life will be set. So, I do spend a lot of time covering my face with a think book that probably serve better in a gymnasium than in my hand chanting the chemical formulae like black magic chants. I have to do this! Why? Because Sharmaji's beta did it and his life is now set. On top of all this, the parental pressure and the snide comments from the relatives! Boss, they should make a rule that someone who does not remember your birthday is not entitled to ask your results.

What I am taught to do is not learn, but just read, remember, write and forget. We know this, but yet, fail to acknowledge this. Every year, just before going back to school or college, we look into the mirror and tell ourselves, "This year, it will be different. I will be better". This, and so many other such pledges.  But, once you start, you realize that all the concepts that were taught last year are as alien to you as Jadoo . The brain so wonderfully seemed to have done a restore factory settings and remove all data during the vacations. In the beginning, we promise ourselves that this time it will be different. I will make every minute count. Each one of us sounds like one Rancho. But, that is also short lived. Exams in two days and your speeches and dialogues won't get you marks. And no marks means you will be again compared to that champu cousin of yours again. You sit with the mountain sized study material and cram it so hard into the brain hoping it will burst out right during the exam time. Results are out and you've managed to stay afloat this time. Time to puff up the chest and take pride is "surviving" yet another year.  Aand the vacation and the next year starts. Same wine in a different bottle again.


But, where are we headed with this. Our brain is a fully functional intelligent organ and not some high speed hard disc to cram in data and retrieve it ! It is actually a little shocking that no one seems to give a damn about this either. All that a teacher is worried about is "completing the portion" and dodging the "out of syllabus" questions. All that a student is worried about is getting good marks in the finals. Who cares if I understood or not. No one give a damn about the big picture. Everyone is trying to desperately dodge the small puddles on their way to take a dive into the massive ocean. Learning to swim would be a more useful skill that learning to dodge! This concept has bred so deeply into our system that true education, actual learning will seem to repulsive to the body. More repulsive than my cooking in fact. The body will not even try to digest this but instead antagonizes this. This is what would lead to the decadence of our civilization as we see it. What we need is to curb this before this turns into such great evil that it would require a Mahadev to destroy it. (Readers of Amish's work will get this)

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