Meenas PoemsA gift bought with care,
unmindful of fare,
was a piece very rare,
bearing lot of credentials to share.
proposing many features in pair.
It was brought across the shore,
was priceless even more.
The special feeling it bore,
was the core,
enhancing the significance by a score.
Reaching the destination finally,
it was unpacked carefully,
Lo! it was damaged slightly.
the tear was visible obviously.
The precious gift lost its value immediately.
| Article first published as Are Schools Really Seats of Learning? on Blogcritics. |
Schools are seats of learning. They should inculcate values and establish reason while imparting education. The personality, as a whole, should undergo a development.
The child in school has to blossom into a beautiful individual endowed with refinement and sharpened wit. Academic excellence alone should not be the prime criterion, as it can be anybody’s achievement once you rely on learning by rote, revisiting the subjects often, and taking innumerable tests and examinations. Top grades have become the targets of modern schools, which try to churn out products in quantity tagged with high scores, very much akin to industries producing goods.
Industry aims at profit and looks out for competition. If the industrial houses slacken their productivity their existence in this highly competitive world becomes a question mark. They have to service loans borrowed from financial institutions, pay wages to their workers, buy raw materials, maintain quality, pay power charges, and spend on research and building infrastructure to survive in the marketplace. As their demands are high, they concentrate on production.
Schools do not have such compulsions. Production should not be their aim. Quality should come first. The teacher should teach the child in depth, not look into the grades. The pupil should understand the subject before he or she is tested on it. The child should enjoy learning, which leads to a love of the subject. It is the teacher who makes a lesson interesting or boring. A monotonous lecture confined to the subject renders it extremely uninteresting. An hour of lecture should contain a pep talk, a discussion relevant to the subject, then take up the core lesson followed by a short question and answer period.
The last period of every school day should be allotted to games, moral science, library, hand work, debating, and quizzing. The students’ work should be displayed in the classroom ando remain there for the term. Parents should be invited to see their child’s performance. This would develop bonding, a grip over the child, and a rapport with the teachers.
How many schools do these things? The child right from kindergarten is subject to tests. Examinations bring in fear. The small child undergoes a tedium that robs him of his childhood fancy and imagination. He becomes a live gadget and assumes a mechanical style of living. He gets up in the morning, rushes to school, listens to the teachers, comes back home, does homework, and prepares for tests. His eyes automatically close, leaving him a hapless child devoid of freedom and enjoyment.
The parental pressure on the child is enormous. They impose their aspirations on him. They want him to become an engineer or a medical professional so that he can turn out to be an income generating machine. The child has no choice. He has to obey his parents. The child has to study irrespective of his wishes, and graduates as an engineer or doctor. Thus begins his ordeal of making money. He does so and builds wealth. He has sacrificed his interests and love. He has lost his childhood happiness which will never come back at any price.
Nowadays schools are run as businesses. Education has become expensive. It is an economic novelty bound by no principles. It is a great money spinner. Many with little education establish schools, as they yield enormous revenue. The world has found a technique based not on science or commerce, but on the fundamentals of desire and greed.
Schools are apparently great enchanters attracting the public with their intrigue and seducing them by their fanciful advertisements and misleading pro formas.
Let it be a tremor.
Let it be a storm.
Let it be a hurricane.
Let it be a revolution.
Let it be an up rise.
Let it be a battle.
Let it be a murder.
Let it be a gory accident.
Let it be an untimely death.
Let it be a disappointment.
Let it be an embitterment.
Let it be unpleasant.
Let it be ghastly.
Let it be terrible.
Let it be happiness.
Let it be exhilaration.
Let it be a pleasant weather.
Let it be fun.
Let it be entertainment.
If the mind remains unruffled.
Then the mind rests in peace.
It revels in joy.
There was a fire burning red.
Lit up to burn the rubbish.
It flagged and waved with the wind.
It then turned into grey fumes.
It suffocated the inhabitation.
The smoke emanated foggy white flakes.
It polluted the environment.
It then subsided into black cinders.
The ash got spread in the brown terrain.
It lay for ages fresh and undecomposed.
An array of colours produced a devastation.
An unbearable heat caused a parchment.
Lina, for all I know, had a setback that day.
It kept Lina locked for a day.
She sat speechless the whole day.
She was not her usual self that day.
Lina,all I know, is invincible.
She had overcome events terrible.
She faces disasters with spirit credible.
But that day she was inconsolable.
Lina, for all I know, is of a stern stuff.
She never in exasperation huff or puff.
She is not a snobbish vain buff.
But, that day she was terse and gruff.
Lina ,for all I know, is a girl of pride.
She carries herself with a charismatic glide.
She speaks in an unleashing stride.
But that day she was in a 
low tide..
Lina, for all I know, is a lovely angel.
She is a dainty, kind angel.
She is a sweet-tempered angel.
But, that day she was looking like a fallen angel.
Lina, for all I know, is a private person.
She behaved with an idealistic reason.
She is a flower of all seasons.
But, that day, she was in enormous tension.
Lina, I know not your turmoil.
Could you not create a foil?
Could you not put an end to this toil?
Lina would come out of it without a soil.
She looked brave and fearless.
Her status was great and righteous.
She volunteered to handle the tactless.
She did with all the more diligence nevertheless.
Taking care of the deranged was troublesome.
She accomplished it with a grace wholesome.
She never complained about her duty cumbersome
Rather she had to toil for nothing awesome.
Willingness drove her to undertake the work.
Initially her lack of experience landed her in dark.
The inmates greeted her with a loud bark.
She got accustomed like a graceful lark.
As years rolled she became familiar with her job.
She was a genuine aid not a snob.
She created among the deranged a meaningful throb.
No wonder, she was hailed as the “lady of the mentally robbed”
Anxiety mounts up.
Tension creeps up.
Fear rises up.
Pressure scales up.
The results are coming up.
It is not the presidential election.
It is neither the award presentation.
Do not look at me that way.
Do not call me silly.
I await, I see through the gateway.
It is the promotion of my child always.
From Kindergarten to grade 1.
From grade 1 to grade 2.
So on and so forth.
Reconciliation is there to pacify.
Reconsideration is there to satisfy.
Reprehension is there to intensify.
Restitution is there to indemnify.
Renovation is there to beautify.
Retribution is there to justify.
Recounting is there to quantify.
Reimbursing is there to rectify.
Retorting is there to defy.
Redeeming is there to ratify.
Rejuvenating is there to electrify.
Reforming is there to modify.
Relieving is there to gratify.
Revered are beatified.
Words do have meaning.
They possess feelings.
They issue commands.
They are never to be broken.
Word is the essence of talk.
It enhances the speech.
It adds to the charm
It lifts up the pride.
Words are not playthings.
None can play and push it apart.
None can talk and ignore.
None can spell and forget.
Word catches up like fire.
It lasts longer than fire.
It hurts more than burns .
The resultant wound never heals.
A word is a promise.
It has an idealistic value.
It has a classic significance.
Its claims are lofty and tall.
An irresponsible word destroys sobriety.
An irrational word hampers harmony.
A harsh word dampens decorum.
A rude word damages the cordiality.
Word needs a careful address.
It requires a soft semblance.
It reflects one’s personality.
It speaks about one’s dignity.
Be careful with your terms.
Be cautious with your speech.
Be polite in your talk.
Above all, be definite in your word.
She was brooding over the happenings.
She was recollecting the trappings.
Her memory took her long back.
Reminding her of the days in a track.
Once she was a golden girl.
She moved along with lovely frills.
She hummed in musical shrill.
Everyone danced to her drills.
She grew up to become a lovely lady fair
She commanded respect in all the flair.
Gliding through the tracks in a rare,
she evoked a shining glare.
The curtains are falling down.
Her demeanour has become a frown.
Her appearance has lost its glamour.
She withdraws herself into her chamber.
She has to come out of her past.
Eventually accept the present.
Go about with the tide in glory.
That is how we have to end the story.
Meenas Poems 