Education, Friendship, and Rebellion

When I was in Primary school, I was happy. I was enjoying the studios, friendship, and freedom. But when I got into High School, everything changed, Friends became rivals, creating a disturbance in harmony.

In Primary School, there was no discrimination among genders. Everybody, everyone was the same, we sat together, we played together, we laughed together, there was this precious harmony among us.

But in high school, the harmony among genders was destroyed. We didn’t destroy it, the school, the system was the reason for all that. There were two separate columns of desks for us, the girls will sit on one side and the boys will sit on another. We were made to believe we are different.

And then came the competition, who will get the most marks in the exam, who will be first, second or third. Back then, were naive, we just went with the flow, and it drifted us apart. My friend was first, I was second; I was first, my friend was second; this lunatic cycle killed our friendship and turned us into enemies. We even stopped talking to each other.

We were fighting! Fighting with each other for a fake cause. Meanwhile, we failed to see, what we were sacrificing. We sacrificed our friendship, harmony and in the end, we even sacrificed learning.

The truth is, in those years, we did not learn anything, we just memorized a bunch of passages from books to throw it up in the exam. In fact, we were successful in that sense. We were so motivated by winning, we forgot to learn and understand what we were studying.

Maybe, that’s what the system of society expects us to do. To be frank, I was lost back then, but things started to change when I started to Think.

Deep down, I always knew something was wrong, but the fog of winning made me blind to the truth. I did, what I was supposed to do. But one thing that saved me from that psychopathic rat race, was my remissness towards studying. I am a born inventor, I like to build things, I liked watching too much TV; It saved me.

From class 9, my grades on exams started to decline drastically, because I was doing what I do best, “invent” things. In class 10’s board exam, I came third, and in class 11, I failed; I failed again in class 12’s Exams. I barely passed class 12’s board exam, and you know what, I don’t have a single bit of remorse, in fact, I’m proud of myself, for rebelling against the system.

While I was failing in exams, I did some wonderful jobs (according to me). I will talk about them, maybe some other day.

I know, some might think, I am a failure, yes, from a perspective of society and system, I am a failure, I will not get a job and lead a “happy” life! Well, I don’t care, as Mexican Revolutionary, Emiliano Zapata said, It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!.

I don’t care, if I don’t get any job, or die poor. I’ll be happy knowing, I did what I liked; I rebelled against the system.

Don’t do what they say, you’re supposed to do. Do what you want, do what you believe.

~ Palash Bauri