Responsibility

(A day of June in Gurgaon.)

"It has become unbearably hot here these days."

"Yes. The times spent in office and home are life-savers. But walking to office and returning takes the hell out."

"A clear sign of global warming. Govt. is not concerned at all to save the environment."

"True. But people also have to take responsibility. See, so few people took the new metro with us."

"Anyways, we have reached home. The first thing, switch on the AC."

(A construction worker watches from the road.)

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ps

अपना-पराया

'आप किस स्‍कूल में शिक्षक हैं?'

'मैं लोकहितकारी विद्यालय में हूं। क्‍यों, कुछ काम है क्‍या?'

'हाँ, मेरे लड़के को स्‍कूल में भरती करना है।'

'तो हमारे स्‍कूल में ही भरती करा दीजिए।'

'पढ़ाई-‍वढ़ाई कैसी है?

'नंबर वन! बहुत अच्‍छे शिक्षक हैं। बहुत अच्‍छा वातावरण है। बहुत अच्‍छा स्‍कूल है।'

'आपका बच्‍चा भी वहाँ पढ़ता होगा?'

'जी नहीं, मेरा बच्‍चा तो 'आदर्श विद्यालय' में पढ़ता है।'

-- हरिशंकर परसाई (1924-1995, साहित्य अकादमी पुरस्कार)

रसोई घर और पाखाना

गरीब लड़का है। किसी तरह हाई स्‍कूल परीक्षा पास करके कॉलेज में पढ़ना चाहता है। माता-पिता नहीं हैं। ब्राह्मण है।

शहर में उसी के सजातीय सज्‍जन के यहाँ उसके रहने और खाने का प्रबंध हो गया। मैंने इस मामले में थोड़ी-सी मदद कर दी थी, इसलिए लड़का अक्‍सर मुझसे मिला करता है। बड़ा ही सरल, सभ्‍य और सीधा लड़का है। साथ ही कुशाग्रबुद्धि थी।

एक दिन मैंने पूछा, 'क्‍यों, तुम्‍हारा सब काम ठीक जम गया न? कोई तकलीफ तो नहीं है उन सज्‍जन के यहाँ?'

वह तनिक मुस्‍कराया, कहने लगा, 'तकलीफ तो नहीं है, पर वहाँ एक बात बड़ी विचित्र और मनोरंजक है।'

'क्‍या बात है?' मैंने पूछा।

वह बोला, 'वैसे तो मैं उनके चौके में सबके साथ ही बैठकर खाना खाता हूँ, पर घर में जो एक वृद्धा है, वे मुझसे कहती हैं कि बाहर की टट्टी में पाखाना जाया करो। घर में बड़ी और प्रमुख टट्टी है, जिसमें घर के लोग जाते हैं, एक और है जिसमें नौकर-चाकर जाते हैं। मुझसे वे कहने लगीं कि बाहर वालों के लिए यह बाहर वाली टट्टी है। मुझे चौके में तो प्रवेश मिल गया है, पर टट्टी में प्रवेश नहीं मिला।

अगर तेरी झूठी प्रतिष्‍ठा भोजन में प्रदर्शित न हो पाएगी तो तू मल-मूत्र में ही प्रदर्शित करके रहेगा। अगर मेरे रसोई घर में ऊँच-नीच कोई नहीं रहेगा तो तू संडास मेँ ऊँचा बनकर दूसरे को नीचा बनाएगा। शाबाश!

-- हरिशंकर परसाई (1924-1995, साहित्य अकादमी पुरस्कार)

The misleading picture

The picture above was recently in the news and more prominently in the circles of social media enjoying its ephemeral fame, prolific ridicule, widespread laughter and umpteen comments. Propped and enlightened by the comments of people on the social media, leaders gave their insightful views on how this “feature of society of Bihar” was bad and deeply crept in. Even the rugged veterans of Bihar politics, who are supposed to be deeply connected to the roots, made heartfelt appeals to the Bihari families to not allow their wards to cheat. The Education Minister felt that this malaise had grown so intractable that it couldn’t controlled by State alone. Former CM Lalu Yadav proposed a novel solution of open book exams so that cheating can be controlled. But I need to explain why this will not work.

A picture is worth a thousand words. However, in this case, I think a few hundred more are needed to explain the situation a little better. Since I spent my entire elementary and a bit of secondary learning in the state primary and high schools of my village in Siwan district of Bihar, I have witnessed the preparation of my seniors during state board exams. Different subject experts available in the village or in the vicinity were hired on corresponding exam days to sit near the exam centre. Rest of the family members or friends were there to take questions out to the subject expert and after he solved the questions, they took the cheat-sheets back to the candidates. I remember people inviting a venerable octogenarian Panditji of the village on the day of Sanskrit exam who went there only after much persuasion and a gift of silk dhoti. So, this hub-and-spoke model of knowledge supply chain was effective only when there was a subject expert sitting at the hub. Students sitting at the end of the spokes, who were used to be at the receiving end of the sticks, not knowledge during their classes, will still be clueless even if books are allowed in the exam.

It is amusing to see how the blame has been shifted so quickly and easily on the society. In reality, the picture represents the failure of our state in two specific realms. One is the quality of education in state schools of primary and secondary education. Going by the Annual Survey of Education Report 2014, around 86% of children 6-14 years of age are enrolled in government schools. Since 2009, the percentage of Std. V children who can read Std. II text in govt. schools has gone worse from over 56% to 41% in 2013 (comparative figure for private schools is 78%). Similar secular decline has been observed for arithmetic skills. Also, the high enrolment rates of 86% (that too is low in comparison to national levels) are not to be proud of; the attendance rates hover around 50-60% despite provisions of mid-day meals.

The quality of teaching in primary and upper primary schools of government is even worse. Compiled from various surveys, the teachers’ attendance rate in primary schools is around 83% and less than 80% in upper primary schools. This is on top of 40% vacancies in teaching personnel. Despite huge recruitment in recent years by Nitish govt., the qualification of teaching personnel has actually gone worse. Graduate teachers form only 40% of primary school teachers. Subpar salary offered in ad-hoc teaching schemes like Shiksha Mitra force teachers to engage in other activities for livelihood thus making teaching a secondary activity. In such scenario of state education, it is no wonder that students depend on cheating to pass in exams.

The other larger issue which this picture presents is of that of opportunity of livelihood. Bihar’s lagging economy and ineffective law and order stayed for a long time to eventually close its doors for private enterprise in the state. Agricultural economy has largely remained a subsistence activity despite acreage under food grains over 90%. According to the State Economic Survey 2014-15, no. of factories and workers employed, despite recent increases in last few years, have remained one of the lowest among all Indian states. Despite having immense potential for food processing, new private enterprises have been able to provide employment to only 6000 people in the sector during Dec 2013 to Dec 2014. Of the 28 sugar mills in the state, 18 are either sick or closed. In the last two decades, the major portion of employment offered was only by the State which obviously required minimum educational qualifications. Other areas of sports, art, drama and music which do not put much emphasis on educational “certifications” have not offered any avenues of livelihood generation. These conditions have instilled the belief, or rather fear, in people that educational “certifications” are a must for an employment opportunity, however bleak it may be. Such socio-economic conditions have led people to emigrate for employment search. And this emigration has been prominent not just in unskilled category but also in highly skilled professionals.

Hence, the solutions offered for the malaise represented by the viral picture are incorrectly aimed. Making invigilation strict or introducing open book exams or appealing to parents to instil ethics in their children are measures which are either misplaced or intentionally used to avoid blame. This is not difficult to understand when another picture of an examination centre of a CBSE or ICSE affiliated school is juxtaposed for comparison.

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ps

लोकतंत्र

ये जो तंत्र है

एक महान यंत्र है

ईवीएम के प्रयोग से

लगता, सभी स्वतंत्र हैं |

नहीं कोई षण्यंत्र है 

दिखता नहीं, नवीनता

आती हर पंचतंत्र है |

अपवित्रता बिल्कुल नहीं 

कहाँ से हो, जो रोज गाते 

ब्राह्मण असंख्य मंत्र हैं |

अशांति की कोई चिंता नहीं 

पंडित मौलाना, ख़ुशी से 

मिलते गले, निशस्त्र हैं |

नेतृत्व के नेता हम हीं

पूरे जगत को सीख दें

चूँकि सभी साधू-संत हैं |

कर्मण्यता का ज्ञान है 

एवं धैर्य की सीमा नहीं 

अतः, हर काम होता अनंत है |

चाचा सैम कुछ भी खोज करें 

पर ये हमारा अभियंत्र है 

यूनान को, आओ हम बताएं 

यही लोकतंत्र है, यही लोकतंत्र है |

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ps

The circle of life

--
ps

सृष्टि से पहले

सृष्टि से पहले सत् नहीं था
असत् भी नहीं,
अंतरिक्ष भी नहीं
आकाश भी नहीं था |
छिपा था क्या, कहाँ
किसने ढंका था,
उस पल को
अगम अटल जल भी कहाँ था |

सृष्टि का कौन है कर्ता
कर्ता है बांह अकड़ता
ऊँचे आकाश में रहता
सदा अध्यक्ष बना रहता
वही सचमुच में जानता
या नहीं भी जानता
है किसी को नहीं पता
नहीं है पता, नहीं है पता |

- वसंत देव  ("भारत एक खोज" का शीर्षक गीत)