What a wonderful world

I have noticed that kids these days are under tremendous pressure to perform well, and it starts at a tender age with parents forcing their wards to take studies more "seriously". Some children do commit suicide if they dont do good in their exams. The demand for "all-rounder" kids is growing now. Having everything perfect... a child who is good at sports, studies, not stage shy and can sing if needed!!! The countless talent competition don't help the cause either. Its not good for children to subject them to so much of tension. The child within doesn't live for long this way.


So, some people (including educationists) say that we should stop failing kids upto standard 8. It leads to way too much of peer pressure and depression. Let them believe for some years that its a simple world, where other people are not a threat, where there is nothing like success or failure... nothing going wrong... let them have a cocoon for some years. Is this the solution to a problem or just a stop-gap measure to divert attention and claim "We did something"? Isn't there any way for a healthy competion? I am not a great supporter of 'escapism'. Somehow, I can never be convinced that if you turn your head away problems cease to exist. I dont think closing someone's fragile eyes from seeing the competitive world will save them. Facts done go away if you chose to ignore them.


But what amazes me more is human similarity to ostriches. We are both firm believer of burying the head deep in sand when we see danger. If people hurt us by being more studious/intelligent/smart.. we remove competition. If we see someone abusing their wife or child, we turn our head away. If some one tells us about the sad state the environment has reached or the effects of that little plastic bag or water bottle, we look at them in disbelief and ask not to scare us. We flip the channel when they tell us about the tribal war or dying farmers. We prefer glossy sports section over horrors of khap panchayat or effects of endless mining. We are quite certain that there is nothing wrong with the world, that things are good, getting better and nothing needs to be changed. That we dont have to take out our hands from that shiny glove of comfort to do some cleaning ourselves. Its a wonderful matrix. Stay there... stay happy.