Well, this is yet another story of a boy who was forced to study Science at the higher secondary level and then how his life became miserable after that!
I am yet another person whose skills were never really appreciated, even by his parents let alone by his teachers, tutors or neighbours! I still remember how an uncle in the neighbourhood had mocked me when I told him that I loved reading novels!
In fact, our society quite easily labels someone as dumb or stupid if that student is not good at Mathematics or if he isn’t able to solve those numericals in Physics and Chemistry!
I remember back in school; my teachers didn’t encourage me or appreciate me for doing well in Arts, especially in English and History. But yes, they did ridicule me for scoring poorly in Science! The more I tried to score well in Mathematics and Science (gave all my time to it), the poorer I performed in other subjects.
I always wanted to be in the Indian army and for that, you simply need to be a graduate. Here too, my parents didn’t support me.
But I held on! The most devastating moment for me was when I found out that I had a problem in viewing things from a distance, and I had to get glasses with cylindrical power which made matters worse!
But I didn’t lose hope and found other ways of joining the army! There were the Corps of Engineers in the Army which I found equally adventurous and that’s the only thing that I had in mind when I chose Science at the +2 level!
Well, in the Army once you become a regular user of glasses you can’t become a commando or a part of the infantry you either have to work in the technical or the administrative departments of the army, but that is not the case in IPS.
For someone who always got motivated by the likes of Major Sandeep, Unnikrishnan – the idea of working at the administrative department did not appeal to me much.
So, coming back to the struggle, I made another wrong decision by enrolling myself in a coaching institute for IIT-JEE. Well, that simply ruined everything!
I am not demonising the entrance exams but yes, the manner in which these coaching institutes prepare the students, the way they segregate batches and the discrimination that you have to face, pushed me into depression. There were very few ones who helped me out, but there were always more people to mock me, especially, the teachers.
Looking back, neither the vectors that I learnt to help me find a direction in life nor did the complex numbers help me to solve the complex problems in life. I can’t get both the time and money I invested, back. I lost two crucial years of my life.
I wouldn’t just blame the coaching institute but also my parents and teachers, who played an instrumental role in deliberately creating an environment where anybody who didn’t study Science wouldn’t be able to do anything in life.
I still can’t believe how I managed to make my parents believe that not only won’t it be possible for me to do engineering but also it would be a further waste of money and time if I continued.
Now I’m finally studying Law and wish to sit for the State Civil Service Exams and am determined to clear them anyhow.
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