Who is experiencing Trauma of Examinations?

Examinations are a really traumatic. It is a common misconception that the entire trauma of examination is experienced by the student i.e, examinee. This is not the whole truth. While banishing the Xth board examinations Kapil Sibal made a golden observation that parents also undergo trauma. I can not agree more. However, students and parents are not the only section of society undergoing the trauma of examination process. Behind the scenes there are several people undergoing the trauma as a mistake on their side might lead to some serious trouble for themselves. Just to mention a few, take the people who set the examination paper, person who is responsible for composing and printing the paper, people responsible for dispatching the right set of papers to the examination center and in fact the entire machinery involved in the process is under stress.

I am more concerned about invigilators. In my opinion they suffer maximum in some parts of the country as their job becomes most frightful. Few students come well prepared to tackle the examination not by studying well but by coming prepared with instruments of intimidation like daggers, pistols to name a few. Poor invigilator’s life during the examination period is worse than that of a condemned prisoner facing execution. Latter is certain about the date and time at which his life gets snuffed out by the executioner but the poor invigilator is never so certain; it may be at any moment and it may not happen at all. I have not heard of any murders in examination hall. If there is one, Agatha Christie, being a compulsive writer, would have surely written one more book; she wouldn’t let such a golden opportunity go. But it is the uncertainty which Kills - note the capital K; in fact one dies once every few micro-seconds, if not more frequently, during those three tense hours which actually feels like three hundred plus years in such a situation. Dying once is not bad at all; I have not heard of any dead complaining about death. But the continuous death is surely traumatic.

Yugratna Srivastava

Over last few decades, I became an admirer of some distinguished people from various walks of life. Latest is Yugratna Srivastava. She is youngest of all and unique. Three most populous countries in the world have a combined population of about 2.8 billion. She has represented over 3 billion youngsters at an important international forum.

What makes her distinct is her right to represent has not come through any dynastic succession. She earned her place through a global process. Her name Yugratna translates into gem-of-the-era or diamond-of-the-era. How true!

She is just 13; too young and is still a child. It is imperative on the part of media, more particularly TV reporters, to leave her alone and let her have childhood like girl next door. It should be left to her to decide on what extra-curricular activities she wants to take up.

We have seen what media glare and torture Budhia was subjected to and is being subjected. His coach, mentor and friend was shot dead by some criminals. All sorts of controversies have come up and things were blown out of proportion. Is it in the best interest of a promising child?

There is a need to learn lessons from mistakes and ensure Yugratna gets her right to lead a normal childhood and participate in additional activities of her choice. Society and media should desist from subjecting her to pressure of high expectations.

Good Luck to you, Yugratna; enjoy what you want to do.

Link to her UN speech:

http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/climatechange/shared/Documents/SpeechYugratna.pdf

Tarantula Reprimands Arachnid

While Pope Benedict XVI was addressing people of Prague on 26th September, 2009, a large Arachnid audaciously inched towards Pope’s neck as the journalists watching it on a giant screen flinched.

Your Tarantula reprimanded Arachnid immediately by e-mail and asked it to behave.

Popes are a respectable lot. Our Pope Benedict XVI is one of the finest. Arachnid has no business to be creeping on his robe. While Pope is preaching, one has to stay put and listen with reverence.

Spiders are not born equal. Every Arachnid cannot think like Tarantula, let alone sting. It should have known its place. Hope our Pope forgives the Arachnid.

Viswanathan Anand (Vishy)

Gaze into the firmament of Sports, you will notice thousands of bright meteors. As they pass through the atmosphere, most of the rapidly burn out. Very few reach the earth in the form meteorites. The impact made by of most of them is hardly visible. One or two in a decade make a lasting impact in the world of sports. Undoubtedly, one such is Viswanathan Anand, fondly known as Vishy.

My choice personalities from all forms of sports together number about a dozen. Each is distinctive in his/her own achievements, contribution to the sport and the impact they made on subsequent generations. Sergey Bubka demolished everything on his way in pole vault, started off by climbing peaks, believed to be impossible to scale during his time and then went on to scale peak after a peak. He had to challenge himself at every event since there is no one close to him challenge. He is a real Pole Star (dhruv tara) in the firmament of sports.

The landmarks (rough equivalent of records in cricketing terminology) set by a sportsman are not good enough criterion to be my sports hero. They are mere numbers. The membership count of their fan club does not impress me. Some super-heroes killed the entire next generation in team sports. True hallmark of a great sports-person depends on how many younger people inspired by him have taken up that sport seriously and surpassed him and set much higher standards than the earlier era. The legacy left behind – the good points alone. If you look at some Indian film personalities, they have a massive count of vulgar fans. Am I to go by their numbers?

Anand grabbed the attention of discerning chess world at a young age. Experts predicted he would be a World Champion in future. He did become World Champion not once but thrice; in three distinct formats against formidable opponents. His behavior on and off the stage is impeccable. He is a gentleman to the core; soft spoken outside the playing room and a silent assassin at the board.

When he first made his mark at a young age, in India and in fact, in most of Asian region, there were hardly any high-level chess players. During that period, high-level chess players mostly came from the erstwhile Soviet Union and some European Countries. Bobby Fisher, an eccentric genius from US was an exception. Several youngsters drew inspiration from Anand and now Asia has dozens of GMs, and hundreds of IMs and thousands of talented budding players. Chess standards have gone up to a remarkable level. Spain does not consider him as a foreigner. He is widely respected not only in the Chess World but also in the entire Sports World.

Is a Ban, Bane or Boon?

Once in a way we come to know that a book or a movie has been banned by the Governament or a Cleric or the Supremo of a Mumbai based organization. The word ban has synonyms like boycott and there is an Urdu word for it. These bans arise if there is an iota of offence or more importantly perceived offence to the banning party. Such bans, without exception, become a boon to the publisher/author or producer/director as the case may be.

Statistically 99.07% of all bans are stage-managed and banning parties are unaware of the manipulation by the banned party. This technique is very handy when a publisher/author or producer/director realizes that their work is going to be an utter flop on release. As a rule, every ban evokes immediate response from the media, which gives wide publicity from Flash News until Walk the Talk few days later (in media parlance, it is known as MHRC which means media hype retention cycle) and generates curiosity in public. Public is ready to derive the illicit pleasure and everyone wants to be the first to know why such and such thing is banned or what is there in it to attract a ban. It is something like biblical forbidden apple. They get their personal copy of the Book from black market or buy a pirated CD. Experts say that this technique has optimal efficacy when it is sparingly used and there is no more than one ban in any MHRC period. Well orchestrated proscription gets lifted soon after all the printed copies / pirated CDs are sold out thereby creating demand for re-print.

Arithmetically, in the remaining 0.93% cases, ban is a bane.