Choices

I grew up in a small village in Thirunelveli district called Alwar Thirunagari. There was an elementary school, a high school and a small hospital. A library  was also there. In our village mostly joint family system prevailed, mainly because the family income was from agriculture. The life then was very simple. There was no electricity and a total of five buses ran. Mostly people walked, even to the villages nearby.  We children had only two sets of  clothing that were washed daily and worn. We took bath in the river Tambirabarani and attended school in the morning. Even the lessons in school were simple. Normally language, Maths, Science and History were taught. History was very interesting as it was full of stories and pictures; Maths was mainly about addition, subtraction and multiplication as division was considered to be difficult; in Science we were mostly taught about plants making it also a bit interesting. We didn't own or had to carry any books. In the evenings we would  go to the riverbed to play. Those days even the number of games we knew were less. One of the games that was available was football, but it was costly as it needed a ball, making it unaffordable. So we played only games that required no money and mostly physical games. We would study for an hour after that and got enough sleep in the night. Life was normal and simple. After matriculation we went to type writing class and then got a government job. Marriage would be arranged after two years and this simple life continued. No big ambitions, one cinema a week and visiting nearby village by foot was the only other entertainment.

      Nowadays things have changed a lot. Education has become complicated  and the means of entertainment are more. But when the choices are more, selection becomes difficult, causing more confusion. Take the case of selecting a school for your child, you now have many choices for picking the school, but getting your choice is very difficult. First, you must know when the application will be issued. Then, for that day you have to wait in a queue for two days nonstop. You have to carry a chair, newspaper, and eatables, with all of them needing to be replenished  from time to time.You should also pray to the rain god to stay at home and not disturb you until you get the application form. After that the interview date will come. You should provide your profile to the school authorities and according to the worthiness of your profile, your kid will get admission. The fees and other charges will approximately equal to your one years pay. After that you should select the extracurricular activities. Tennis,dance, music are very costly but as a responsible parent these money matters should not disrupt you.

[.. to be continued]