A trip back to memory lane... Almost eight years it has
passed since I stepped out of school. And still the feeling of being young,
impish and enthusiastic never stops. My heart takes a leap, on seeing my
teachers, cradling the next generation with lessons of wisdom, compassion and momentum!
And then I think...!
Every year millions and millions of teenagers pass out of school. Most of them
accomplish all that they dream for. Some others may not achieve what they dream
for, but yes, they still would learn to deal with it.
But in the process of growing from a gullible teen to a
conscious adult and then an archaic person, how much do we exercise the values
that we learnt at school. Of course we did great with trigonometry and
algorithms. We re-lived the era of Shakespeare and soared up from The Brownian
Motion to Quantum physics. Scooped through the colorful salts in chemistry labs and distinguished a Base
from an Acid. We became doctors, engineers, architects, PR's and heaven forbid
what not!
However, have we given a thought on growing a tree for each
person, so that his or her bag of oxygen is secured? Do we know that 4th of
every month, our city of Bangalore asks its citizens to travel by buses and
avoid taking out our automobiles because its "Bus Day" and it reduces
the traffic and pollution; or we could try "Carpooling". When we
construct our homes do we consider maintaining a garden over a concrete
flooring that blocks rainwater from draining into the soil? Have we
contemplated that this could lead to soil erosion, drought prone land with poor
or no fertilization and probably desertification. Do we realize that its easy
to clear our homes and dump the waste on the road, but its difficult to
anticipate that this could lead to epidemics that are incurable.
There is a new trendy phone up in the market every other
day. Its great to get the new one... and what about the old one... have we
considered the "Take Back Program" where these mobiles are recycled.
Do we make the effort to "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle"
Our teachers embedded values of unity, religious harmony and
the wisdom to distinguish between the right and the wrong. They taught us that
we make the Constitution and as responsible citizens we build the Government,
but how many of us either skip the election as we don't believe in the system
or vote to maintain our electoral ID? When we were in school we celebrated an
Id, a Diwali and a Christmas as one... We understood that our country is very
diverse and that's what makes it special. Yet today we fight to lay lines to separate
cultures that once we gloated as one.
We were told to always share the bigger half of the apple
with others, inculcating in us the value of selflessness and the right
attitude. But today our environments that we are in, we all prefer keeping the bigger
piece of apple or probably the whole apple. We forget to respect, appreciate
and acknowledge others. I remember a teacher of mine once said, if you see me
on the road, then walk up to me and say "Hi". She warned that she may
not recognize me by my name, but that's the biggest reward she can get.
Our schools not only strengthened our academics; but they
engraved a soul in us, that needs to be kept revived and kindled. We age, but
the wisdom that we procured during this time should stay young. We need to keep
reminding ourselves like how our teachers never forgot to say, "We are the
Privileged ones, lets share this privilege and make the world around us better
in our small little ways". Our School gifted us The Learning of our Life
Time and we in turn can gift a safe and beautiful future for the generations to
come...
