Exam Time ...

Its exams session now and you’ll find parents along with the examinees are equally engrossed, stressed out for the exam preparation. A blanket ban on TV, music and masti is imposed in these houses, its curfew time until exams get over. Well I really had a unique experience recently in my locality when my security guard requested or rather berated me to play music at lower decibel since many students in the locality have there exams and my free music service was not being appreciated at all.

I saw some news clips showing student’s committing suicides due to exams stress, someone committed suicide due of failure in exams. What a shame…..some news channel is also running a debate on this. We have counseling sessions being organized by various NGO’s health agencies and even CBSE to help out students cope with pressure of exams.

I am tempted to share this story about my board exams, during my 12th board exams I faced a piquant situation as India was playing Pakistan is world cup match at Bangalore and I had my papers the very next day. The temptation of watching the humdinger Indo-Pak world cup match and fear of exam was giving me worst possible quandary in my life .I finally deiced to watch the match and Boy what a match it was…..I really don’t regret having a not so good paper.

Phew…these kids are really emotional kind these days. I’ve interacted with some really bright and so called studious students and one common characteristic which I’d seen in them was confidence. Somehow the fear of failure seems to be the worst enemy which any student can have. Parents have got the most critical role to play in building the psyche and emotional framework of the child and personally I feel that more than the students it’s their parents who need all kind of psychological help to stop being paranoid about the child’s academic performance. Parents have been wrecking havoc on the child mind by pushing them against wall for a secure career.

If your cousin, brother or any relative friends happens to be in IIT, AIIMS or any good institute, school, college worth its name, be assured, your life is doomed till you are in school or college. That constant comparison will drive you nuts.On a serious note I feel this has got lot to do with our changing pattern of societal fabric. As a society we have never been so fiercely competitive and individualistic, being average or a failure was never considered taboo in Indian society. We have always worked to live not lived to work. Career has always been important but never the most important thing. Although the board has been trying its best to reduce the stress of exams still we find the situation getting worst.

Indians have been able to make their global presence felt in the field of academics, science and medicine because of the fact that they have had excellent academic record .The fact that we have some very successful faces in public life despite being not so successful academically we Indians continue to fall back on our certificates and degrees when it comes measure success in life.