The subversives

In a news item “Toppers’ secret: Grit, focus and more” in The Hindu (May 30th, 2009), I spotted three names that are, or should be certified subversives. These are Ms. Kanika Saxena, Mr Vikas Choudhary, Mr Sahil Jindal. I would have added Mr Shreyans Jain and Ms. Aparna Jethani to the group of three but unfortunately they are not explicitly mentioned as having participated in the revolutionary acts of the other three. But, given the tone of the article, we would not be wrong in making such an assumption. Yet, I desist from clubbing them with the others, at least for the moment.

What has this gang of three done? They have eschewed following the beaten path to golden success but reached the goal nonetheless. They gave the lie to the reigning paradigm of beyond-school hours coaching that ensures an enhanced stream of income for in-service teachers and a reliable one in post-retirement, not just for teachers. Now, I would come clean and tell you that I am planning for such income in my retirement, due in five years, assuming my private sector employer does not deem my services unnecessary earlier. So, I am justified in my antipathy towards them.

Ms. Saxena, with her 80 percent marks in the class X exams, made her recently widowed mother most happy for having successfully navigated the trauma, indeed multiple ones - the loss of her father and grand mother, her mother’s inability to guide her, the exam, the circumstances that forced her to drop out of tuition classes. Within the bullet points of the current business model of school education that swears by after-class tuition, the last of the above should have daunted her but did not. That is where I spot the budding rebellion against the established order.

Mr Choudhary “took no coaching,” yet scored 96.8 percent, topping every one from Delhi government schools. Perhaps his father who is a government school teacher helped him after-hours but that is par for the course. Mr Jindal, a believer in “regular studies” asserts that “No extra coaching was needed.” He topped the Delhi region with 98 percent.

Mr Jain is quoted as saying, “I have been studying right since the beginning of the session” with late season ramping up, from three hours to eight per day. What did he land up with? 97.8 percent! This too goes against the current paradigm, not of any pecuniary interest, of cramming for the exams. Ms Jethani’s grandparents spoilt her by cheering her up “every time [she] felt tense.” So, luck plays a part, to have such involved grandparents who spoilt her in the right way; she scored 97.6 percent.

From the above I get a group of three certified and two iffy rebels, the subversives, out of the population running into a few lakhs of students. Yet, for a nascent movement this is quite dangerous. This time though I will try to be a little less selfish than usual and give the group my unalloyed blessings and also hope the movement picks up speed, undermining my plans for post-retirement.

Raghuram Ekambaram