There was a silence of a particular type in some apartments of a building. The results of class 12 board examination had been announced.
One thing about these examinations is that, more than the child who is actually attempting the exam, it feels as if their parents are competing amongst themselves, their relatives or other acquaintances. Although not all of them, but there is quite a significant number of them out there. You may know about most of them only when their son or daughter has scored very well, otherwise it is the usual ‘marks are not everything’ accompanied with examples of people who scored poorly but did quite well in life.
The silence in the building was due to Bhuvi. She had been labelled as the one to stay away from. Why? Like they said, she was not serious, spending most of the time reading books, drawing or simply going out to play with her dog or friends. What need do children have of all these or anything else apart from a set path to a successful life, which involved studying most of their time and thinking about what they want to become in life. That is what some parents believed.
Bhuvi’s parents were tired of trying to direct her interests and time more into studies. You can never really force anyone in this world to do something unless it is by inhuman means.
But that day it was a silence which was quite firm in its presence. Amongst the children in the building, Bhuvi had scored the highest. It was a subject of major upset for some parents who had time and again pointed out looking at Bhuvi, that this is not a way a child should be in such a senior class of the school. One of the parents even resorted to accusing falsely that she had heard that Bhuvi had cheated. But all acquisitions and upsets fell silent before the fact that everyone knew, the girl had actually been able to enjoy her life and succeed at the same time.
There was a time when it was said, success and money would not take over the essence of life itself. It worked well, and I envy those who lived in such times. But now it seems even childhoods are beginning to fade as a cost of the requirements of life, as is presented by the world of today, anything you say otherwise would be boldly countered by individuals who are very proud of their salary packages.
But I know that at more than one place, life is flourishing above the walls and clouds which would otherwise put a question mark over almost anything you do freely.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
The Lost Childhoods
Early Morning Memories 