Centum and distinctions abound
beaming faces peep out from the papers
the topper has scored 499/500.
Amazing,
I turn the papers and see many more pictures
the schools publish them. An advertisement
for the next year’s admissions.
In my times,
the schools including my alma mater
did no propaganda. It was a quite affair
The schools were not in less demand.
Times have changed.
Of late, education is a transaction
the more you give the more you gain.
Fees are in various genres.
Capitation, admission, extracurricular,
laboratory, sports, so on and so forth.
Altogether, it runs into hundred thousand.
The schools work out a profit margin,
not one of 10 to 15% as in commercials
but a neat 40 to 50.
Knowledge is no longer the base.
Money plays the mirth.
Schools churn out scores
fail in personality development.
Meenas Poems 