It Has Begun, Board’s
Despite everything, that one word is enough to make me instantly wary. It’s just an exam (like any other), just examiners (like any other), and just results (like any other). Right? The only difference is that I am in an alternative school in India. But somehow when I hear the word “Boards”, I think of a room with a really high ceiling and my classmates and I, scratching answers as quickly as we can, stopping only to recollect information from our (probably) frenzied brains and maybe to daydream just a wee bit for a break you know. I can already see myself staring at some wall with a frown, trying to remember that one word, that one line that is infinitely important to me at this point. Hitler was a tyrannical dictator but his policies were popular amongst the people. Now what was that policy’s name? Darn it just on the tip of my tongue. It’s a turbulent time. The smallest things can break you down just as they can bring you joy. All of us are trying to keep it together, all of us know how the other feels, and all of us are going through the same thing. Sometimes you feel really relaxed and you tell yourself it’s just an exam like any other.But is it really? I think I’m pretty sure some of us atleast who are Board classes will agree that the exams are just terribly hyped up so much by everyone that you too find yourself caught in the whirlwind of solving innumerable old papers, timing your study hours, slowly turning into an insomniac or having dreams of the exams and examiners in black robes breathing down upon you. Madness, that’s what it is. But the undeniable truth is that it is just an exam. In an ideal world exams would not be the method used to test our learning and understanding capacity. But our world isn’t ideal just as the Board members aren’t interested in causing us suffering (well that’s what they say at least). And that is what we are thought in our alternative school in India. And well it won’t be as bad as we anticipate. Are we really scared of a piece of paper and a group of people who sit far, far away from us and will never even know our names? Are we really going to waste our energy and expend our peace of mind thinking about these unchangeable facts and brooding? I’d say we should all just enjoy our last few weeks together, do as much as we can and leave the rest to fate. Tough it may be, but not impossible. So:To everyone who’s going to write the Boards, who’s not in an alternative school in India. They’ve already forgotten my 10th grade results or the fact that I did write 10th Boards. It’s just a few months of hype and insanity, you’ll live. And the same goes for the 12th grade (me as well), we’ll live. And maybe in the future, years and years from now people will see sense and scrap exams and devise better ways to test a person’s knowledge.Let’s Hope. By Gowri Rekha – A Class XII student of The Peepal Grove School – One of the alternative schools in india
Man & Woman
You and I. We live together,In the same place, with the same people.But we do not lead the same lives. Yours is a world of perpetual victory-Of constant laughter as you play the game.Me?I neither lose nor cry. Not becauseI win the game with you,But because I’m not in itAt all. At every step you take,You are encouraged, applauded.Mistakes you make are pardonedAfter you’re reproached (if ever,)Just for the sake of it.Me? At every step I am askedTo prove myself-Prove my passion, my cause.And the mistakes I make?They are used to proveMy absolute incompetence. When I ask why my life is so,I am told thatIt’s because they can change me. Not you.I understand, and you don’t. I believed that once. But today, I Declare.I would rather be a rogue-a name they have given youAs an excuse for your freedom.I would rather be called callousThan be a scapegoat for your mistakes. Then, I would truly be meFor my own sakeAnd not because someoneHad high expectations that they thoughtI could live up to. I don’t blame the people that live in your world.I don’t blame the people that live in mine.The tragedy is that one dayYou and I will do the sameTo anotherBoy and girl. -Gauri Kashyap (A class 12 student of The Peepal Grove School (PGS) – Alternative residential school in India)
A Few Random Thoughts That Formed A Word, A Sentence, And Soon A Whole Essay!
I realized, well I keep realizing, that it’s been more than a year since I’ve joined PGS. And out of the not-so-many students we have, there are a lot of people who I don’t know at all except by name and class. Sure we all say hi to each other, and smile, and probably have sat with everyone at least a few times during meals. But how well do we know the other? Not well at all, I’d say. Even those who I sit with and talk to regularly can surprise me still. And now I realize, well I keep realizing this too, that the next term here will be my last term here. And I won’t see most of these familiar faces probably ever again. And then I start to think: Hey I’ve been here only for a few months. What about those who’ve been here for almost their whole life (like a few of my classmates who’ve been here for 7-8 years- phew, that’s a lot!)? Now with all those exams coming up, we’ll all be on our toes next term (or so I hope). Though we probably will, as we always do, chat and have fun. But it will be moderately less as our teachers and house-parents will make sure that we don’t waste our time. But is it really a waste? Getting to know another amazing, probably bugging and probably totally crazy person? I wouldn’t agree (though of course I don’t mean we should ignore our studies and just socialize and have fun). I mean think of the bonds we’ve made here at PGS, I’m sure some of us have made bonds that will last beyond school life. And isn’t that great? Imagine talking to that friend you’ve known for oh so many years and reliving all your young misdemeanors and laughing when you’re older. Imagine being invited to one of the weddings of your friend’s who’d said they’d never get married, ah, that satisfied feeling of being able to say “I told you so,” to them. Imagine seeing one of your friends faces on the newspaper for winning a Nobel prize for, oh I don’t know, Peace or Physics or something! And so many more things…One of my friends recently asked me “would you give up these two years in PGS for anything?” And even though sometimes, when I’m in a really bad mood, I’d probably say yes; honestly, I don’t think I’d give up even a year out of these two. – Gowri. (A class XII Student of The Peepal Grove School (PGS) – An alternative boarding school in india)
It’s a Man’s World
I’ve heard all the arguments a gazillion times. Yes, women do have more freedom than before but at what price? At whose mercy? The world was created for both men and women to live beside each other at par with each other. Just take a second to think about it and be honest: Are We At Par? A boy of my age can leave his house for whatever reasons without being asked too many questions or worse being stopped from leaving. A girl simply cannot. A boy hardly ever gets questioned about anything and even if they are questioned or caught doing something wrong, they are excused with the infuriating phrase, “they’re boys.” They are boys. They can bend the rules or break them even. So, boys can break rules, do whatever they want and lie through their teeth but hey! Girls can too. Except – if girls behave that way we are given hell for it. And this is what I don’t get, this is what I cannot understand and don’t think I will ever- Why? Who set the rules for different ways of behavior for males and females? I’ve also heard the age old argument (like all my fellow girls) that women need to be protected, to be kept safe. Well then, create a world which is safe for us and not at the price of our freedom. Ideally the world should be a haven for every single person regardless of gender, caste, creed, color etc. But I’m not trying to change the world. I want the equality scale to be balanced first in our school. We’re a small group of people but it’ll be tough to change this fact and make the scales equal because it’s been a man’s world since the beginning of time but it won’t be forever. Gowri Rekha ( A Class XII student of The Peepal Grove School, an alternative residential school in India)