''I have never let my schooling interfere with my education''
-Mark Twain
Though India's literacy rate jumped from 5% in 1901 to 74% in 2011, we have been instructed 'TO' study, but never taught 'HOW' to study. Catch hold of any passing student and interrogate him for his secret to studying, and he is bound to look around stealthily and utter, "Be it any subject, I by-heart the notes". I belonged to the same tribe as well, till THAT day -- which made me re-think all my assumptions on the curriculum.
Which was that horrible, horrendous day which brings shivers down the spine of any average student?
A Parent-Teacher meeting
I, then a 14 year old, was accompanied by my mom to collect the marks card of the mid-term exams, on a Saturday after noon. I had on a timidly optimistic smile, as the arrival of my father to such a felicitous gathering had been avoided. If he had come along, it would have become more of a slaughtering than a meeting.
I was a below-average student, sitting in the fourth row, supporting the wall. Laughing at the pranks of the last benchers, and getting help from the front benchers during a test was a daily affair.
As soon as my class teacher Mrs. Sunitha noticed me entering the staff room, she stood up from her chair and bounded towards me like a dog catcher chasing a street dog. She was a highly seasoned Math teacher who felt students could be mended ONLY by punishment. She could have tamed a lion with her piercing gaze. Her punishments would always have the following prefixes:
Whyy are you laaaffing? Tell me also no, I also want to laaf
Whyy do you camm to school if you don't lyke stadiees
Ees Thees a class or a fiiish maarket?
I am taaking to you only Whyy are you looking baack an all?
Yuvar juniarrs are mach mach saylent than you. Larrn from them noo
Why you dont bring vomework? Do you farget lunch baax?
Ai will thrrow you aut of the claas
Her heavy-set features and long hair went well with her attitude. She instantly showered her updated complaints onto mom, like a wife complaining about her mother-in-law to her husband.
Now came the icing on the cake. The heartless Math teacher unveiled my midterm exam score card. It read 'C+' As if adding a + in the card would have made my future resume strong. The whole staff was awaiting mom's expression as if at a post-match presentation ceremony where either I or the teacher would be felicitated.
Unusually the staffroom turned silent. I could hear the breeze. Seconds passed like hours. I never knew that silence could be THIS silent!
I raised my head in confusion.
Mom was crying. Tears flowed from both her eyes. She stood still and didn't even wipe them off.
This was the last thing I had expected. My love for mom couldn't tolerate her silent cry. The whole world turned blue. I didn't want anything in the world except to bring her comfort. As my fists firmed, I felt like shouting out loud, "Ma, don't cry, please hit me, punish me till you are satisfied, I can bear that, but not this silent cry!''
She swallowed a lump of anguish. She was disappointed.
I wished I could run away from the world. Far away, Where my mom's sorrow would be invisible and none could perceive my agony.
I had a new enemy - Mrs. Sunitha
Charged to 11000 volts, my only aim was to bring back the lost sheen on mom's face and prove Mr. Sunitha wrong. That prompted me to explore the terrain of smart studying. I met diverse people, as I preferred studying brilliant students rather than textbooks. And I shadowed all the activities undertaken by top-ranked nerds right from the way they listened in class, the way they tied their shoelaces, the way they chewed the back of their pencils, to the way they brainstormed. Bribing them with delicious home food from my lunch box was the usual method applied.
I realised their best kept secrets.
In my future posts I will be sharing all the secrets that I learnt