A couple of weeks back my younger cousin came to me asking which coaching class is good or has better reputation. She enquired about Mahesh Tutorials, Ramchandra's to name a few. What I suddenly realised was that she studies in the 7th grade! On asking the same she said 'Sagle class lavtat tar mala pan lavaycha aahe.' (everybody joins a coaching class so even I want to join). So here, there was a package deal for classes 8th ,9th and finally the 10th . As shocked as I was to think about how her 3 years are going to swoop by; thanks to the Rs.10,000 discount offered by the classes on a sum of 1 lac fifty for the package; she had no idea so as to what she is in store for. As if that wasn't all, 11th 12th , CET and AIEEE classes (read: well, package) was also coming her way. Again just like any stereotypical Marathi Brahmin family, she was bound to wind up doing engineering and fritter her coming years not to mention pursuing MS or MTech or well, MBA! After regular school from morning 6.45 till 12.30, the rickshaw ride at 2.30, to the one and a half lac fancy classrooms with centralized air conditioning, swipe cards and other blah, began. This was to go on till 8.30 every single day. Wasting precious childhood and exorbitant money was just the start.

 

Structured by the age old industrial revolution, teenage years are out of the curriculum. I remember I never studied and nor did I ever come 1st or 2nd or 10th in the class. With a few and a few too much expectations I joined the esteemed Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering. Thankfully I didn't have to pay to get an admission any which ways I wouldn't have paid that sort of money. Everything changed after that. Leaving at 8 am just to reach back home by 7 pm that is if the traffic conditions were endowing enough! Everything went job oriented. Keeping up the scores to get recruited by a company, which will again make you work your ass off. Just to hear by the seniors, 'Nothing that is taught is ever used in the companies!' Of all these years that I've mentioned earlier you must have noticed we don't rest nor do we get peaceful sleep. Thats when novels come to the aide as if your 5000 page production technology book wasn't enough. So we read Chetan Bhagat, we read 5 point someone. We saw 3 Idiots and joyfully gave our Rs. 240's from some PVR to our Mr. Amir Khan. Nothing ever happened. Or did anything?

Yesterday, 19th December, 2011 a classmate of mine, Mihir Goradia, committed suicide after he was told to take a drop for Three Years since he was caught copying while writing the last paper of the fifth semester. The last we heard of him, well, after seeing him enter the HOD's cabin, was when he was found on the railway tracks between Bandra and Mahim, the same evening. The disbelieve that everyone of us were in, had a gulp in our throats. A facebook search for Mihir gives 'No Results Found' on my friend list.