Astrology  Chat  Cityscape  Classifieds  Entertainment  Health  Matrimonial 
Music  News  Panorama  Search  Shopping  Services  Tours & Travel  Home

PRAVEEN -- Good evening Varun! Hai Rohit! How did your Valentine's Day celebration go? Had a great time?

ROHIT -- Great time? Don't provocate me, Praveen. After all the arrangements I made for that day, guess what happened?

VARUN -- Did your friends ditch you at the last minute?

ROHIT -- No. I fell sick. I was down with fever and lying in bed the whole day.

PRAVEEN -- I am so sorry, Rohit. If we had known, we would have come and seen you with a nice 'get well' bouquet. Varun and I watched a movie and had dinner at his place.

VARUN -- We thought you would be busy having fun. That's why we did not call you up. Anyway, how are you now?

ROHIT -- I am fine and fit as a fiddle. I tried calling you yesterday Praveen, at your office. I was informed that you were on leave.

PRAVEEN -- Yes. Like you, my sister was down with fever and she requested me to go and collect an application form from a nearby school for my niece. My God, what a serpentine queue for KG admission! I had to stand for nearly three hours to procure an application.

ROHIT -- Well, the toughest one is for KG, mind you. You should observe the parents of these children, who are waiting for the 'Admitted' card. I call it 'Enrollo phobia'. They look so agitated, give darting looks, appear pre-occupied and keep twiddling their fingers. The children, on the other hand, are under pressure to perform well in the interview. Isn't it crazy to judge them in a single day?

PRAVEEN -- I agree with you. The child may not feel well on that particular day or may not be in a mood to answer questions, though he/she might know them.

VARUN -- I feel that it is 'much ado about nothing'. I don't understand why the parents are particular about enrolling their children in a particular school when there are so many schools. Don't children studying in ordinary schools come up in life?

PRAVEEN -- That's true. Take our own President, Dr Kalam. He studied in an ordinary school and not in any convent or private school. Isn't he in a top position now?

ROHIT -- That's all fine to say when you are not a parent. Put yourself in their shoes and you will understand their anxiety. What a child needs at the beginning is a solid foundation, which is vital for the child's progress in future.

VARUN -- That may be true, but the schools that are besieged by such parents develop a superior attitude and charge exorbitant fees. Isn't it unfair?

PRAVEEN -- They feel that once their school's name is established, the parents will not mind paying such fees. The fault lies with the parents also. The more they comply with, the more imperious the attitude of the schools.

ROHIT -- If the parents develop 'if not this, there is always another' attitude, this problem might decrease.

VARUN -- After all, teaching in schools is only 50 per cent. The rest of the teaching is done at home by parents, mostly the mother. Otherwise, the children find it very hard to cope with the syllabus.

PRAVEEN -- You are right. Some schools insist on the parents being a graduate, so that they can help their children in their studies.

ROHIT -- That's quite sensible. I don't find anything wrong with that. All said and done, it has become a highly competitive world now. Parents want their child to do well and so they try their level best to enrol them in the best schools. You can't blame them for this.

VARUN -- It is survival of the fittest, as you say. It is a pity that the children are not allowed to grow up as children nowadays. We can only hope that these children, when they become parents, give their children the unbridled joy due to them and which they lost when they were so young.

PRAVEEN -- Well said, Varun. If that happens, they will grow up as better and brighter citizens of our country.

Radha N.