Dear Papa,
This is in answer to your letter about my transgression. Yes, my first rank skipped to the second. You advise that I should think before studying, before answering the papers. Yes, the operating word “think” did make me muse and these are the results of those musings.
Father, we’ve never really been close and I can’t rightly say, you’ve been my friend, philosopher, guide etc. Yet, I would like you to be aware of my musings. They are very important to me. You are highly educated and you provide very well for the family. But in your departmental store, do you apply Pythagoras Theorem or Newton’s Law of Gravity? For that matter, does your doctor friend? Or your lawyer brother?
Papa, my grandfather speaks of a carefree and beautiful childhood. Of days spent in plucking mangoes and guavas from their “jameen,” of picnics on the banks of the rivers where the men cooked mouth-watering food, of playing marbles and gilli danda. From his talk, it seems, studies were an ancillary subject, and living and experiencing, the major subject. Father, is he fibbing? Or is it possible that the world turned topsy-turvy in just about 70 years?
Papa, my grandmother is semi-illiterate. Yet she is at peace with her pots, pans, her flowers and garden, her Bhagavad Gita and scriptures. My mother, highly qualified, is highly strung, tense and nervy. Do you think, literacy is a harbinger of restlessness, fear, and frustration? Is it Adam and Eve eating of the Tree of knowledge all over again?
Oh Papa, last week, my rose plant almost died. Some pests. I asked my Biology teacher what I should do to save it. And she was cross. She said go ask the guy who keeps gardening things. He’ll tell you. We learn about pesticides but we do not know to use them. Oh father, it matters not to me why the apple does not fall upwards, nor do I care what Archimedes did. What matters to me is that my rose plants remain healthy; when there’s a fuse in my house, I should know to do something about it. I should know to make a desk for myself from my carpenter’s tools. Instead I learn about hypotenuse relational square roots.
Papa, once I asked grandmother how she got; to be so wise. Do you know what she said? By living and experiencing. And she laughed as though I had asked something, which was so obvious. Are we living, Papa? Or is life bypassing us? What I fear is that if I were to meet Newton face to face, I would fail to recognize him, so busy am I learning about him. You know just like the boy, Vinu, in that award winning film. He prattles on – The Hibiscus is red – a hundred times, but in his book he colors it yellow. Are we missing out on the essence of life? –Papa, that’s what happens in my craft and drawing class. My imagination wants to soar like a rocket to Jupiter and Mars. To traverse new world, new fields.
Anyway, Papa, do you know where I lost that quarter mark that brought about my fall? It was a fill-in-the-blanks.
I held that I was invited to tea and my teacher was adamant that he was invited for tea. A matter of grammer. And, Papa, if he says George Bush is the President of India; it will have to be so. If he says the sun rises in the West, so be it; and if he says the earth is flat, it will be, it will be, my Papa. At least on my answer papers. My first rank is at stake, you see. Still, my dearest Papa, I shall keep your advice in mind and strive not to lose any quarter marks..
As always
Your ever-obedient son
Rahul
P.S: - Your eyes will not see this anguished plea, my father. This was only to lighten my over-burdened hear. It is not all arteries and muscles, it feels too.
BY RAJ KINGER
The above story was posted by mother as a comment to the “ideal “posts. And let us see what the story or the letter by son to his father emphasizes? After reading the story my observations are as below.
This is in answer to your letter about my transgression. Yes, my first rank skipped to the second. You advise that I should think before studying, before answering the papers. Yes, the operating word “think” did make me muse and these are the results of those musings.
Father, we’ve never really been close and I can’t rightly say, you’ve been my friend, philosopher, guide etc. Yet, I would like you to be aware of my musings. They are very important to me. You are highly educated and you provide very well for the family. But in your departmental store, do you apply Pythagoras Theorem or Newton’s Law of Gravity? For that matter, does your doctor friend? Or your lawyer brother?
Papa, my grandfather speaks of a carefree and beautiful childhood. Of days spent in plucking mangoes and guavas from their “jameen,” of picnics on the banks of the rivers where the men cooked mouth-watering food, of playing marbles and gilli danda. From his talk, it seems, studies were an ancillary subject, and living and experiencing, the major subject. Father, is he fibbing? Or is it possible that the world turned topsy-turvy in just about 70 years?
Papa, my grandmother is semi-illiterate. Yet she is at peace with her pots, pans, her flowers and garden, her Bhagavad Gita and scriptures. My mother, highly qualified, is highly strung, tense and nervy. Do you think, literacy is a harbinger of restlessness, fear, and frustration? Is it Adam and Eve eating of the Tree of knowledge all over again?
Oh Papa, last week, my rose plant almost died. Some pests. I asked my Biology teacher what I should do to save it. And she was cross. She said go ask the guy who keeps gardening things. He’ll tell you. We learn about pesticides but we do not know to use them. Oh father, it matters not to me why the apple does not fall upwards, nor do I care what Archimedes did. What matters to me is that my rose plants remain healthy; when there’s a fuse in my house, I should know to do something about it. I should know to make a desk for myself from my carpenter’s tools. Instead I learn about hypotenuse relational square roots.
Papa, once I asked grandmother how she got; to be so wise. Do you know what she said? By living and experiencing. And she laughed as though I had asked something, which was so obvious. Are we living, Papa? Or is life bypassing us? What I fear is that if I were to meet Newton face to face, I would fail to recognize him, so busy am I learning about him. You know just like the boy, Vinu, in that award winning film. He prattles on – The Hibiscus is red – a hundred times, but in his book he colors it yellow. Are we missing out on the essence of life? –Papa, that’s what happens in my craft and drawing class. My imagination wants to soar like a rocket to Jupiter and Mars. To traverse new world, new fields.
Anyway, Papa, do you know where I lost that quarter mark that brought about my fall? It was a fill-in-the-blanks.
I held that I was invited to tea and my teacher was adamant that he was invited for tea. A matter of grammer. And, Papa, if he says George Bush is the President of India; it will have to be so. If he says the sun rises in the West, so be it; and if he says the earth is flat, it will be, it will be, my Papa. At least on my answer papers. My first rank is at stake, you see. Still, my dearest Papa, I shall keep your advice in mind and strive not to lose any quarter marks..
As always
Your ever-obedient son
Rahul
P.S: - Your eyes will not see this anguished plea, my father. This was only to lighten my over-burdened hear. It is not all arteries and muscles, it feels too.
BY RAJ KINGER
The above story was posted by mother as a comment to the “ideal “posts. And let us see what the story or the letter by son to his father emphasizes? After reading the story my observations are as below.
1. The son is
having a good relationship with his father where he can express his opinion to
the advices given by father. The father is giving healthy advices to the son
where he can develop his personality and individuality. The son cares for his
father and feels that he owes an explanation to his father for he has skipped
to second rank.
2. The son is
asking question about ”where the knowledge acquired can be put to application to
gain wisdom” and this is an analytical thought based on his understanding of
the surroundings where his father and uncle are located and what they have
studied whether it is helping them in their day to day life.
3. Then the son
speaks of his grandfather’s childhood where it is not scarred by the economy
and how life used to be in the olden days where there is ample space for the
individual to have simple pleasures of life which not only gives relaxation but leaves rich experiences which one can cherish in after life and make one’s life worth
mentioning to remember.
4. Then he writes
about the grandmother’s complacency, where she was happy with herself ,irrespective
of literacy, by living normal life which throws light that happiness can be derived
by simply adjusting to one’s own environment and having good relations with
your inner self.
5. Next para is
again about lack of apathy and non application of knowledge to what is required,
which is a real challenge to the education system, of what is being thought at
schools by teachers and how far the thing is applicable in practical life and in
the present education system how teachers are behaving.
6. In the further
paras the emphasis is on the dogmatic approach of today’s schools and teachers,
where instead of enlightening the children and showing a practical approach to
life for which imparting knowledge is meant, is being not met with.
Now the questions are as follows
1. Are we
providing a healthy environment to the children and whether grooming is so done
that a child is having an emotional bonding with his parents, and whether the
child can freely express his doubts and does the parents are having a vision, time
etc., regarding what the child needs?
2. Whether the
economy is supporting to give chance to such a healthy environment? Who has to
govern this economy? Is it the people, government, entrepreneurs or combined
effort is required? Why so much restlessness in the present society where
happiness is a myth?
3. Where are we
heading, where simple pleasures are lost, complacency is lost and everybody is
engaged in a rat race which leads to imbalance of inner as well as outer
nature?
And above all
4. Why knowledge
is not converting into wisdom which helps to have a complacent living and why
our education system is not supporting such process?
I request for everybody’s participation whoever reading this
blog in expressing their views before I express myself.
