Note - This is a purely fictitious letter written by me as an engineering student who's going to commit suicide - The content is copied from Chetan Bhagat's book - What Indian Wants other than that I have done some editing and added some of my own views as well...
Dear Education Minister,
I sincerely hope that you are doing really fine and the staff of your massive bungalow is treating you well. After all, you are one of our top leaders and you deserve all the high- class facilities and standard of living. I won't take much of your valuable time that you would've loved to spend visiting various ministers, taking rest or perhaps doing any other activity than read my letter. So, I'll tell what I want to in short.
I've passed out my class XII from the science background and have decided to end my life. I've scored 93 percent in my Board Exams and I have a one-foot high trophy from my school for scoring the highest marks. However, since I was unable to get into a college of my choice because of my poor performances, or I should say, not up to the standards set in this country in the various Engineering Entrances, with a 45k rank in the AIEEE and as expected, not qualifying the IIT-JEE even after dropping one year for my preparations, I don't see any purpose in living. I've got a trophy from my school but however, there are so many trophy holding students in this country and so few college seats that I didn't get into a college that will train me to get to the next level, or open up good opportunities.
I know I've screwed up. I should have worked harder to get at least another 3 percent in my Boards last year to get into a top Reputed college for doing my Bachelors in Science or should've somehow got 8 more Multiple Choices correct in my AIEEE. However, I do want to point out a few things to you. When my parents were young, certain colleges were considered prestigious. Today, forty years later, the same colleges are considered prestigious.What's interesting is that no new colleges have come up with the same brand or reputation level. Neither have the seats expanded fast enough to accommodate the rising number of students.
I'll give you an example. Just by doing some meaningless surfing, I saw that 4.5 lakh candidates took the CBSE Class XII exam in 2002, a number that has grown up to nearly 12 lakh in 2012.This is just one Board, and if you take ICSE and all other state boards, the all - India total number is over ten times that of CBSE. We probably had over one crore students taking the class XII exam this year.
While I understand that not every student can get a good college seat, I just want to talk about the so-called good students.The top 10 percent alone of these one crore students is 10 lakh children. Yes, these ten lakh students are the toppers of their respective classes. That means in a class of fifty, these are the top five rankers.
One could argue that these bright kids from all over the country deserve a good college to realise their full potential.Come to think of it, it would be good for our country too, if we train our bright children well to be a part of the new,shining,gleaming,glistening,or whatever you like to call the globalized India.
But then, it looks like you have stopped building universities. Are their ten lakh top college seats in the country? Are their even one lakh? Ever wondered what happens to the rest of us, year after year? Do we join a second rung college? A deemed university? A distance-learning programme? Get a degree in an expensive and a racist country? Or in some cases, especially for the engineering and the medical aspirants, waste a precious year of our lives to again go through the vast syllabus and again stress ourselves? Your government runs a lot of things. You run an airline that never makes money. You run hotels. You want to be even involved in making basic stuff like aluminium and steel which can be easily made by more efficient players in the market. However, in shaping something as important as the young generation, you have stepped back. You have stopped making new universities.Why?
You have all the land you want, there are teachers who love to get a government job, even the education funds are never questioned. Still, why ? Why don't we have new A - Grade universities in every state capital, for instance?
Why is our education system, that is so advanced and self - tagged as the best in the world so rubbish, to say the least? We have all the talent. Indians are probably the most hardworking people on the planet. Since I am from the engineering background, I would like to tell something about what I have knowledge about.We even have institutes like the IIT's that are marked as the best in the country. But still, can you tell me at what rankings are the best institutes in our country in the world stage? Leave all of that, how many of these guys can you assure to be really imaginative, creative and innovative engineers ? How many have won the Nobel Prize? Why are the research opportunities in this country so depleted that our so called Masterminds have to go to a country like the United States or United Kingdom for their higher research, and we have to be satisfied by somebody who wins it & we proudly say- He belongs to the Indian Origin. Why is even a country like Australia much ahead of us in technological development?
Obviously, all of this is seen, especially thanks to our beloved Ancestor Dr. BR Ambedkar - who's even claimed to be the second greatest Indian after Mahatma Gandhi. Thanks to his generosity in reserving seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in even the best institutions of the country, most probably because he was a Dalit himself. Yes, now give all the sickest reasons that you can imagine - That we, the general caste have always crushed them in the past,discriminating them and not giving them any opportunity. That may be true. I don't disagree. But why the hell should this generation earn all the favors for something that happened to their ancestors ? Why should we suffer because of what happened in the past, things that happened even before I was born ? Is this a policy of Tit for Tat ? Also, can you tell me how a person who has a got a 5 lakh rank in the AIEEE compete in a class full of those with 10 thousand at maximum? Can you imagine that student to cope up and survive the pressure? He'll be discriminated inside the institution as well with a tag that reads ' Undeserving'. No wonder that there are suicides reported there as well. And, the other unfortunate folk like me are killed too - by the system and the pressure. Why can't we adopt a common system to every system - irrespective of his caste,creed, tribe or whatever- on the basis of merit ? Thanks to this Ambedkar fellow, we even have reservations in jobs,trains, and even the houses of the parliament. Even if we try to change the system, the Quota ministers out there will never let it happen. And sadly, the talented people will fly overseas in search of much much better opportunities and the undeserving, talent less and the quota folk will survive here - India will remain a developing country forever. I do not mean to say that all the quota people are unworthy, but the majority of them are, in my view. Also,dear minister, kindly don't count these as all personal grudges against them.
Oh well, sorry, I am overreacting. If only I had not done the integration calculation error in my maths paper and not wasted my time over there, I would have been fine. In fact, I am one of those lucky ones. In four years, the number of candidates will double. And then, we'll have a college with only 99 percent or percentile scorers.
My parents were a bit deluded about my abilities, and I do feel bad for them. I didn't have a girlfriend or too many friends, as people who want to get into a good college are not supposed to have a life. If only I had known that slogging for twelve years would not amount to much, I'd have had more fun.
Apart from that, do well, and say my hello to the PM also, as I understand, used to teach in a college.
Yours truly,
Himansh Arora
Dear Education Minister,
I sincerely hope that you are doing really fine and the staff of your massive bungalow is treating you well. After all, you are one of our top leaders and you deserve all the high- class facilities and standard of living. I won't take much of your valuable time that you would've loved to spend visiting various ministers, taking rest or perhaps doing any other activity than read my letter. So, I'll tell what I want to in short.
I've passed out my class XII from the science background and have decided to end my life. I've scored 93 percent in my Board Exams and I have a one-foot high trophy from my school for scoring the highest marks. However, since I was unable to get into a college of my choice because of my poor performances, or I should say, not up to the standards set in this country in the various Engineering Entrances, with a 45k rank in the AIEEE and as expected, not qualifying the IIT-JEE even after dropping one year for my preparations, I don't see any purpose in living. I've got a trophy from my school but however, there are so many trophy holding students in this country and so few college seats that I didn't get into a college that will train me to get to the next level, or open up good opportunities.
I know I've screwed up. I should have worked harder to get at least another 3 percent in my Boards last year to get into a top Reputed college for doing my Bachelors in Science or should've somehow got 8 more Multiple Choices correct in my AIEEE. However, I do want to point out a few things to you. When my parents were young, certain colleges were considered prestigious. Today, forty years later, the same colleges are considered prestigious.What's interesting is that no new colleges have come up with the same brand or reputation level. Neither have the seats expanded fast enough to accommodate the rising number of students.
I'll give you an example. Just by doing some meaningless surfing, I saw that 4.5 lakh candidates took the CBSE Class XII exam in 2002, a number that has grown up to nearly 12 lakh in 2012.This is just one Board, and if you take ICSE and all other state boards, the all - India total number is over ten times that of CBSE. We probably had over one crore students taking the class XII exam this year.
While I understand that not every student can get a good college seat, I just want to talk about the so-called good students.The top 10 percent alone of these one crore students is 10 lakh children. Yes, these ten lakh students are the toppers of their respective classes. That means in a class of fifty, these are the top five rankers.
One could argue that these bright kids from all over the country deserve a good college to realise their full potential.Come to think of it, it would be good for our country too, if we train our bright children well to be a part of the new,shining,gleaming,glistening,or whatever you like to call the globalized India.
But then, it looks like you have stopped building universities. Are their ten lakh top college seats in the country? Are their even one lakh? Ever wondered what happens to the rest of us, year after year? Do we join a second rung college? A deemed university? A distance-learning programme? Get a degree in an expensive and a racist country? Or in some cases, especially for the engineering and the medical aspirants, waste a precious year of our lives to again go through the vast syllabus and again stress ourselves? Your government runs a lot of things. You run an airline that never makes money. You run hotels. You want to be even involved in making basic stuff like aluminium and steel which can be easily made by more efficient players in the market. However, in shaping something as important as the young generation, you have stepped back. You have stopped making new universities.Why?
You have all the land you want, there are teachers who love to get a government job, even the education funds are never questioned. Still, why ? Why don't we have new A - Grade universities in every state capital, for instance?
Why is our education system, that is so advanced and self - tagged as the best in the world so rubbish, to say the least? We have all the talent. Indians are probably the most hardworking people on the planet. Since I am from the engineering background, I would like to tell something about what I have knowledge about.We even have institutes like the IIT's that are marked as the best in the country. But still, can you tell me at what rankings are the best institutes in our country in the world stage? Leave all of that, how many of these guys can you assure to be really imaginative, creative and innovative engineers ? How many have won the Nobel Prize? Why are the research opportunities in this country so depleted that our so called Masterminds have to go to a country like the United States or United Kingdom for their higher research, and we have to be satisfied by somebody who wins it & we proudly say- He belongs to the Indian Origin. Why is even a country like Australia much ahead of us in technological development?
Obviously, all of this is seen, especially thanks to our beloved Ancestor Dr. BR Ambedkar - who's even claimed to be the second greatest Indian after Mahatma Gandhi. Thanks to his generosity in reserving seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in even the best institutions of the country, most probably because he was a Dalit himself. Yes, now give all the sickest reasons that you can imagine - That we, the general caste have always crushed them in the past,discriminating them and not giving them any opportunity. That may be true. I don't disagree. But why the hell should this generation earn all the favors for something that happened to their ancestors ? Why should we suffer because of what happened in the past, things that happened even before I was born ? Is this a policy of Tit for Tat ? Also, can you tell me how a person who has a got a 5 lakh rank in the AIEEE compete in a class full of those with 10 thousand at maximum? Can you imagine that student to cope up and survive the pressure? He'll be discriminated inside the institution as well with a tag that reads ' Undeserving'. No wonder that there are suicides reported there as well. And, the other unfortunate folk like me are killed too - by the system and the pressure. Why can't we adopt a common system to every system - irrespective of his caste,creed, tribe or whatever- on the basis of merit ? Thanks to this Ambedkar fellow, we even have reservations in jobs,trains, and even the houses of the parliament. Even if we try to change the system, the Quota ministers out there will never let it happen. And sadly, the talented people will fly overseas in search of much much better opportunities and the undeserving, talent less and the quota folk will survive here - India will remain a developing country forever. I do not mean to say that all the quota people are unworthy, but the majority of them are, in my view. Also,dear minister, kindly don't count these as all personal grudges against them.
Oh well, sorry, I am overreacting. If only I had not done the integration calculation error in my maths paper and not wasted my time over there, I would have been fine. In fact, I am one of those lucky ones. In four years, the number of candidates will double. And then, we'll have a college with only 99 percent or percentile scorers.
My parents were a bit deluded about my abilities, and I do feel bad for them. I didn't have a girlfriend or too many friends, as people who want to get into a good college are not supposed to have a life. If only I had known that slogging for twelve years would not amount to much, I'd have had more fun.
Apart from that, do well, and say my hello to the PM also, as I understand, used to teach in a college.
Yours truly,
Himansh Arora
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