Life at a discount

In the very beginning of the recent web series titled ‘Kota Factory’ by The Viral Fever, we see an advertisement for the fictitious ‘Maheshwari classes’, which are, in the web series, reputedly the best coaching classes for one’s induction into either the engineering or medical stream.

When its protagonist Vaibhav is not able to get into the center, he feels quite disheartened and is unable to reconcile himself to ‘Prodigy classes’, which is where he finally enrolls himself

In the movie 3 Idiots, directed by Rajkumar Hirani Ji, Raju Rastogi jumps off from the director’s room when he is unable to decide between his love for his bosom friends Rancho and Farhan and his subsequent rustication. He survives, but he is immobilized for 3 months.

In our country India, academic competition remains as high as ever, in fact, it is increasing to never seen before heights.

As a rose cannot exist without its thorns, similarly, this rising rate of competition brings with it a rather sickening increase in the number of suicides each other, with over 1,35,000 students committing suicide every year. Though the reasons vary, the most common reasons seem to be related to heartbreak at a tender age, and well, academics.

This pressure is such a thing that it affects even the best and most brilliant students, who do not appear to have any grounds at first for their deaths.

In fact, nowadays, in addition to board exams, entrance exams for the various institutes, the various mock tests, prelims, etc conducted in school, students now also worry about entrance exams which grant them entry into prestigious coaching institutes, which in turn, serve as the launch pad for prestigious universities.

In addition to the litany of never-ending exams, they also have to deal with the stress of scoring decently, if not brilliantly, to ensure that the coaching centers give them a decent or substantial fee-waiver, so that parents do not have to pay too much during or for enrollment.

Now, it is perfectly acceptable for the parents to expect that from their wards, but what they must take into account is the psychological and emotional and physical effect their expectations have on their wards, who may not express such sentiments out of their fear of rejection, or ridicule or punishment.

This repression leads to further problems, such as depression, suicidal tendencies triggered due to the depression, near mental paralysis, feelings of inadequacy due to the relative success and happiness of their peers etc and so on and so forth.

The same can also be said of a rather brilliant, assertive and confident class X teen, who recently committed suicide in her school, by slitting her wrist and stuffing her face with a plastic bag.

She was known to be a brilliant student who had been topping her class for the past few years from a young age and a girl who was also creative, having written quite a few poems over the years.

She had wanted to join a reputed institute which taught statistics and had been accordingly preparing herself for that by writing exams for some coaching centers. In her case too, she had wanted to secure decent marks so that her parents would not have had to pay more.

This very anxiety, unknown to anyone around her, including her parents, had been slowly consuming her from within, giving rise to a suicidal tendency, which she had expressed to only a single person or a few people, who had allegedly belittled her for her decision and doubted her for the same.

Their rebuttals allegedly served to strengthen her conviction to take her own life, a decision which she saw through on that tragic day.

I must confess, despite not knowing her personally, even I am finding it incomprehensible to accept the fact that she could have done such a thing.  I mean, whenever I try to form a picture of her in my head, I see a happy, smiling, intelligent girl, and then I just see darkness, a life snuffed out due to a few thousands of rupees.

It is quite saddening, even cruel to see how lives are now reduced to discounts, with the longest lives being proportional to the highest discounts offered.

I would like to end here by offering my genuine condolences to her family and by also praying for her, wherever she might be now. Amen.