The Three Haunted Hours

The Three Haunted Hours

“Sattar minute, sattar minute hain tumhare paas. Shayad tunhari zindagi ke sabse khaas sattar minute.  Aaj tum accha khelo ya bura, yeh sattar minute tunhe zindagi bhar yaad rahenge. To kaise khelna hai yeh aaj me tumhe nai bataunga, bas itna kahunga ki jao aur yeh sattar minute jee bhar ke khel lo kyun kee iske baad aane wali zindagi me, chahe kuch sahi ho ya naa ho, chahe kuch rahe ya na rahe, tum haaro ya jeeto, Lekin yeh sattar minute, tumse koi nai cheen sakta, koi nahi!... Kyunki me janta hun ki agar yeh sattar minute is team ka harek player, apnee zindagi ki sabse badhiya hockey khel gaya, To yeh sattar minute, Khuda bhi tumse waapas nai maang sakta…!”

Hold on, hold on! Did you all read each and every line written above? No, the answer is probably a big no! So, go back and read each and every line again, with full concentration before moving forward with this article. Having said that, I assume that you have read the lines again, and have understood them well as well.

Now, no donuts for guessing that the lines are indeed one of the most famous dialogues of SRK, from the blockbuster hit, ‘Chak De India!’ What kind of atmosphere or feeling does the lines gave you all? A feeling of self confidence, motivation and most importantly the feeling of importance of those crucial 70 minutes in a hockey player’s life, right?

Now, rewind the lines in your head with minor changes. Replace ‘70 minutes’ with ‘180 minutes’, ‘hockey’ with ‘exams’ and ‘khel’ with ‘papers’ and now, welcome to the most dreaded place of a student’s life: Examination hall. The changes in the few words have not only changed the place and conditions of this blockbuster dialogue, but have also changed its meanings. How? Well take a look,

The dialogue here talks about a game of hockey, right? Now what will you expect from a goal-keeper to do in the match? You will expect him to perform well at the goal post, won’t you? But in the case of exams, this is not the case. A student who is interested in one particular subject, is expected to perform equally well in a dozen more subjects. Imagine this: A student who is interested in science is not promoted just because he failed in ‘Sanskrit’ or ‘History’. Now in a game of hockey, will you throw out your goal-keeper just because he couldn’t play the role of a centre forward well? May be not but in exams, it does happen.

Getting deeper on the same topic, just imagine an aspiring Cardiologist, getting detained for not performing well in Physics, in the medical entrance exam. Like seriously? I guess basic knowledge of other subjects is needed in any field, Ok agreed. But what does the ‘centre of masses’ or the ‘co-efficient of friction’ has do with a Cardiologist? But in the present scenario of the exams, this is a stark reality. You might want your goal-keeper to perform some extra work sometimes, but will you kick him out if he couldn’t perform well at the centre forward and performed his job at the goal post well? Certainly not.

Here, the exams don’t check the talent to perform but the talent to fetch marks. In one of the cases, an IIT aspirant from Bansal Classes, Kota, cleared his entrance exam with his AIR (All India Rank) in top 10. As a result, he was placed in one of the premier IITs of our country. However, he failed in the 1^st semester exams at the institute and was kicked out of the institute as the result. Oops! The topper in the exam couldn’t perform well at the institute, why? I guess there are 2 possibilities for the same: either the guy was talented but the exams at the institute couldn’t recognize his talent or he wasn’t talented as such, but he fetched good marks anyhow in the entrance exams. Both cases however, indicate one thing: the weak examination pattern which focuses on marks rather than on talent.

Some of you might disagree with my comments on the examination pattern, don’t you? OK, fine. But what would you call a situation when a student with top class CGPIs in the final year is left jobless after some years of initial campus placement? And on the same hand, a student with average CGPIs performs excellently well at the field in his job? None of you can deny this stark reality because it actually happens. So what is it then? Some of you might say it is luck, OK, great! Then what will you call the brilliant inventions by the students from local government colleges at the technical fests? They invented something unusual means, they are talented. So why didn’t they get a chance to study from the premier institutes like IITs? Is it luck again? If it is, then either the educational system in our country is functioning on luck or it is neglecting the talent!

Somehow it is evident that the examination pattern in the country doesn’t make room for talent and is rather marks oriented. How can you guess somebody’s talent on the basis of marks? Now an obvious question from some of us here would be that if a student is actually talented, why will he not get good marks? OK take this then:

Not only this, there are other cases too. What if although being a genuinely talented student, you couldn’t perform well in the exams just because moments before the exams, you got a news of a casualty near you? May be somebody closed to you passed away or was seriously injured in an accident. What do you expect to do in those ‘180 minutes’? Hell, forget about performing well in those ‘180 minutes’, you won’t be able to perform well in coming 180 hours, 180 days or maybe 180 weeks. So, just because you couldn’t perform well in those ‘180 minutes’, means you aren’t talented enough to stand a competition? Just because your marks reflect it? Some of my friends might argue that this is an exceptional case. OK, I agree. But why the hell should we even neglect an exceptional case when we are discussing the authenticity of something? While taking an important decision, you can’t neglect something, just because it constitutes of an exceptional case.

And yeah, I remember from the ‘exceptional cases’ the deadly scenario of every student’s life: Chemistry classes. We all might agree with this, including my student friends who have passed through chemistry or are currently passing through it, that it sucked! It sucked remembering all the ‘exceptional cases’ and the ‘useless periodic table’.  What is the use of it by the way? How many of my working class friends do actually use the ‘exceptional cases’ or the ‘periodic table’ other than obviously those who are chemical engineers? Or how many of us do actually remember the ‘battle of buxar’ or ‘the death anniversary of Aurangzeb’? Not only this, there are useless questions in the subjects that actually destroy the beauty of the subject. ‘What was the color of the hat that the kid wore in the story, “The Ransom of the red chief”?’ This is how we murder a crucial subject: English language, in every student’s life.

I’ve cursed the examination system a lot by now. This however doesn’t mean that I am against the exams. Exams are necessary and will always be, to test an individual and I agree to it. I am not against the exams but the examination pattern. And the article will remain incomplete without some suggestions. So here are some of them:

1)      The useless dates and stuff should be excluded from the exam curriculum. Those, however are interested in history, should be given the separate curriculum with all dates and events. This applies to the other subjects as well.

2)      The exam paper for English language or any other language/literature should focus more on the structure and grammar of the language rather than murdering the beauty of the literature with stupid questions as above. Language is to be learnt joyfully and the literature is for relaxation I guess. However, presently, we are making literature to be learnt and the language a frustration.                      

3)      Marks, should not be the only criteria in the exams. May be practical examination and field work as in case of higher studies will help. The purpose of the exams should be to learn and not to fetch marks.

4)      The studies should be taken as fun rather than as stress!

I now hope to see people studying to learn and the examiners examining to judge talent rather than just Marks. With this, hopping to see some ‘Ranchos’ replacing some of the current ‘Silencers’, I bid you all goodbye. And yeah, “To kaise padhna hai yeh aaj me tumhe nai bataunga, bas itna kahunga ki jao aur yeh 180 minute jee bhar ke seekhlo kyun kee iske baad aane wali zindagi me, chahe kuch sahi ho ya naa ho, chahe kuch rahe ya na rahe, tum haaro ya jeeto, Lekin yeh 180 minute, tumse koi nai cheen sakta, koi nahi!”

Make those ‘haunted 180 minutes’, your ‘memorable 180 minutes’.