CHIMI

 To gauge and imbibe the rightful significance of the letter ‘A’, one has to climb up the ladders of the educational edifice and finally reach the much talked about 10th grade. Then you realize and perhaps more precisely are made to believe that more than the first letter you probably learnt before you developed the magnificent vocabulary you now own, it defines you in every way possible. I can’t resist but say it provides a means for people to place a momentary yet seemingly unbreakable ceiling on what you can achieve, which great men have always said no one has the right to. Known in different names in different boards of education an A1 or an A+ is supposedly only what the prodigies can achieve. And the society has somehow managed to convince itself that theirs is the hand that rocks the cradle. From securing a prestigious position in the local page of your leading daily to gaining the status of the genius next door in the eyes of nosy neighbors and finally convincing the family...

The CBSE, the finest bastion of academic edifice in the country has put an uncertain end to the morass surrounding the board examinations of class 10 and 12 amidst the surging coronavirus cases in the country. In what seemed to be an attempt to call a truce with students, the recent announcement by the board only seems to be an overture to a more complex debate. While the announcement came as a partial relief to class 10 students, the uncertainty surrounding class 12 examinations has only made students more anxious about the possible end.  As an 18-year-old myself, who has had a rather mundane existence throughout the past year and a half, the lone driving force to sustain the mammoth task of studying was a farfetched yet certain end to the 15 years of school life. The announcement to postpone the examination until a further announcement on June 1 has made students complacent towards the prospect of studies. Many have begun to extrapolate about the possible course of action by ...

 From the embellished walls of shopping malls to commonplace salons, their infectious presence abounds in every corner of this world.  We admire the charisma they wreathe and are swayed by their pompous displays of wit, affection and intelligence. I cannot but be surprised if you haven’t caught a mental glimpse of your adored celebrity by now. But what the common man yearns to know is the ‘dubious’ secret to their never-ending youth and eternal charm! Everything from the tall and handsome prince falling in love with the lean and fair princess, the silver screen has set immensely tenuous contours of beauty as something confined to the physical self of an individual.  But why does this topic assume importance, especially in the decade where the golden mantra is to ‘live and let live’?  From this standpoint, is this not a violation of the personal space of an individual? Well, let me hit the nail on the head by providing a countervailing argument. The film fraternity mo...

 From rushing for the school bus at 8:00 am in the morning to eagerly anticipating lunch breaks and finally feeling ‘liberated’ with the 3’0 clock bell, an array of school routines is nothing but a distant memory, the millions of students yearn to get back. With over 1.5 million schools closed and hundreds of thousands of students completely left out of online education, the raging pandemic seems to have provided us with more than just an unprecedented vacation. A number of learned research papers and newspaper articles have been published in the last eight months revealing the flaws in our education system. While the prospect of online education can be seen as an unscrupulous and callous attempt of the government as it would do no better than adding to the 6 million students who were already out of school, one has to try and understand the larger problems they represent. While the limitations of providing distant education stand as the prime concern, we should not overlook the req...

  Politics in India can be rightly described as a treacherous pitch, where even the most seasoned batsmen can lose a wicket if they don’t play safe. So are political discussions in classrooms. It is a herculean task to solely focus on the point of debate and not make distasteful or deceitful comments which can potentially hurt religious or political sentiments. As a result, one can rarely see sensitive issues involving political or religious groups, being taken up for open debates or discussions in schools. The general image of student politics being associated with recalcitrance and rebellion, as witnessed in some institutions these days is largely responsible for this attitude. While these reasons are absolutely justified, the question on the flip side is that, should the current generation grow up in oblivion of issues that assume national significance? The obvious question that arises here is whether one has to necessarily engage in tiresome discussions when mass media, which...

                             It was a moment of disdain to realize that a 17-year-old without an Instagram account is equivalent to an Indian without an ‘Aadhar card’. For those who missed the tongue-in-cheek quality of my comment, I was recalling a recent conversation with an acquaintance of mine who simply refused to believe that I could belong to Generation Z when I confessed to her that I did not possess an Instagram account or a Twitter handle. However, her doubt began to make sense as I read from Google the various credentials one should possess to make themselves a righteous member of this prestigious generation and soon the realization dawned upon me that I did not even remotely fit within its popular definition. I do not wish to present the myriad reasons why I refuse to accept social media as a characterizing feature of the present gener...

        A 17 year old taking up Adi Shankaracharya and his Advaita philosophy as the topic for the CBSE board examination project definitely seems possibly imposed than voluntary. While some would look at it as an atrocious attempt to produce a plagiarised work, a few others would consider it as a futile attempt of an over-enthusiastic teen to encroach into a realm exclusively meant for the ‘intellectuals’. The idea of branding anything that is ancient as backward and moreover, outdated has continued for ages now. As Indians who are endowed with an unparalleled privilege to grow up with these great philosophies deeply embedded in our value system, it is extremely underwhelming to realize that many of these are on the brink of extinction. Although I have no professionally vetted research paper to prove my statement and no scholars to quote, the developmental path our country has undertaken over the past decades has completely ignored these great philosop...