DHIYO YONAH PRACHODAYAATH.

My  dad  was a good man. He was innocent, and carefree. He was studious, and was a double  graduate in commerce and  also in chemistry. His handwriting was clean and legible. He had passed  his Higher, in shorthand and typewriting.  But he was also an adamant man, not always for the right cause.

I as a student was constantly running away from mathematics. It was a subject, which I dreaded in any form, be it math, geometry, or algebra.

When I had completed my Matriculation, I had to join a one year course, then known as PUC; Pre University Course. I took commerce, logic and math. So I had to struggle for one more year with trigonometry and calculus

Then I had to do my graduation.  I wanted to  do English literature, as it was a language  I loved. My father was dead against this. He asked me, “ What are you going to become, a boring English lecturer, is it?”

My other choice was to join an Arts college, and learn painting, sketching  and sculpting. This too my dad forbade, by saying, “ You want to grow a  beard, hang a cross bag, and go knocking door to door to sell your paintings, is  it?”

He also adamantly refused to finance any of my interests. He wanted me to do BSC math. Because he was fascinated with math. Had I listened to him, I would have retired doing BSC math.

So he forced me take economics. There too until my second year, math chased me in the form of statistics.

Finally in the third year of my graduation, I could  exorcise myself from  all forms of math. Since I was not interested in economics, I had gone college, just to enjoy myself. I bunked classes, went to movies and generally roamed about Chennai aimlessly with college mates.

The final exams neared and we had 45 days of study holidays. I did not know a single word of economics. My friend who was good in studies helped me. He got me all the text books needed just to pass the course.

I started studying with the sole aim of clearing all the papers. Another friend from some other college with totally different subject joined me in my studies.

We studied daily for 22 hours. We slept from 4 AM to 6 AM., just for 2 hours a day for 45 days. Both of us cleared all papers. I just managed to get only bare minimum pass mark of 35% in one paper. I managed to get a 45% in the final exams and passed in third class.

Then I joined a consumer company as a salesman, and sold biscuits. Nothing of what I had studied for 15 years was of  use for the job which I did. 15 years wasted in learning things which I would never put to use. So poorly structured is our educational system, that it does nothing that is valuable to our life. But this system has been marketed so well, that the institutions make money , by giving us useless information. Then we have to thank people like my dad, who make their children do things in which they are least interested.  

God created man and gave him mind and intelligence. Man created education and never put to use the intellect given  by Nature .

Our fore fathers knew this pit fall of human beings.  And in their daily prayer to the almighty beseeched it to” inspire the intellect,”  in the words of the sage Vishwamitra- Dhiyo yonah prachodayaath.