Summer Ways...

Its summer again. Summer always reminds of holidays. Many a times it brings back childhood memories. From the start of a new school year, what we eagerly used to wait for was the yearend holidays…loooooooong holidays. Since my mother was a teacher, she too had holidays during those days. She had to visit the school once or twice a month and that time, I too used to go with her, most of the times. Else I might stay at home with my sister or we both might stay at some relative’s place on that day. Dad never used to take leave during the summer days to take us for a vacation. Thus, in my childhood memories, ‘going for a vacation/holiday’ doesn’t exist.

At my native place, where I spent all my childhood, summer was really hot and sweaty days. But it also was mango time. So, we used to through stones at mango trees (of course to get mangoes). Not only that, those were the days we used to climb trees most often, either to pluck mangoes or tamarind or guava or to play.

Now, in this city, we are lucky to have lots of mango trees in our apartment complex. They all started flowering now. This time, it is not that hot, which is a surprise. May be the hot days are yet to come. But anyway, yesterday it rained and today its very pleasant sitting inside. Its very sunny outside and the cool breeze which comes through the window gives pleasant hugs to make us comfortable, giving us a feeling that God loves us.

Summer time is exam time too. My sister’s eldest daughter is giving her 10th grade exams, which is sort of a turning point in student life. And for my son, it’s the ‘season’ of exams. Whenever he has to give exams like this, I think of the senseless educational systems that prevail in this country. And I also gets a thought ‘ it was a mistake to admit him into ICSE stream’. For us, exams took only 10 days of so. But for his case, it started on 8th and it goes till 25th (yes, there are some holidays too, in between) and he is only in 4th grade !

If we compare our quantity of education with other nations in the world, may be our little ones shoulder the worst burden (quality is also not bad, Indian IIM/IIT Graduates are one of the highest paid ones around the world, and during campus interviews, many MNCs go empty handed for lack of enough candidates). And the stress? Yes, even my son complained of headache due to stress ! is that the end? Nope, I don’t know where India stands in such a statistics, but every year, before exams or after the results, many students commit suicide, mainly coz they could not meet their parents’/teacher’s expectations. Now this is one of the topics we see in daily news papers.

I think it is high time the authorities seriously look into the prevailing educational system and make appropriate changes and moreover, have some uniform/standard system throughout the country.