What’s happened to that old order when friendships and marriages thrived, when neighbours helped each other and all was well with the world? Things have changed now, and not for the better, discovers REENA SINGH
A close relative is a teacher in one of the Capital’s reputed schools. She often comes home recounting tales of her day when we all sit together for a family meal. She often tells us of preparation for school plays, trips, examination duties, and stories of some of the students in the school. We listen, often in rapt attention, wondering how school life has changed over the years.
She teaches rather young kids, and sometimes holds online classes as well. Some months ago, when the AQI in Delhi reached unprecedented heights, online classes were announced. Last term, some surprise offs were given as well in the schools in the NCR region—there were a series of bomb threats and while no one could catch the culprit in the first two cases, it was established that the third and fourth one were pranks by children, themselves. The reason? They weren’t prepared for their exams, so thought it was a quick way to ensure a holiday. For while classes can be held online, exams surely can’t.
Did they get punished? Were they packed off to juvenile detention centres or merely given a warning and let off the hook? We didn’t really hear of the verdict as the cases were hushed up. The rumour was that they were sent off to counsellors and let off with a stern warning. Children of that age are protected by a series of laws so there is not much that one can do.
Some of the stories that the teacher has been telling us about events in the classroom have been rather disturbing. There are two siblings in her school who now live apart. The custody of one has gone to the father, and of the other, to her mother. The concerned couple are battling it out on several fronts and don’t speak to each other except in court. Sad, really.
No one has pulled out either of the children from school. School admissions in reputed schools are hard to pull off, so the two warring parents probably decided that the kids should continue in the same school, even when they don’t live under the same roof. Wonder how this will all turn out?
If this case was not shocking enough, here is another one. Two neighbours living in the same gated highrise community have fallen out with each other and now they want to ensure that their kids, too, have nothing to do with each other in school. The problem lies in the fact that both now find themselves rubbing shoulders in the same class. The frantic Mom of one of them called—’Don’t let my kid sit next to so-and-so,’ she screamed into the phone to the class teacher.
Really? Should the next generation grow up with such venomous feelings towards other innocent children for no fault of their own? It is inevitable that the siblings are going to be thrown into some class activities together and one can only hope that better sense will prevail in their innocent minds and that they will focus on the good times they once shared back home and continue strengthening that bond. And the two neighbours are surely going to find themselves together, too. After all, they are in the same school, will play in the same playground, share the same space and probably have the same friends. Shouldn’t the parents have ignored their differences and let their children mingle with each other, naturally without restrictions?
I will leave you to decide what’s best for these two strange cases that I have just cited. I am sure you may have heard many such stories, too. Divorce, separations, and misunderstandings have now become commonplace and it seems that no one now has the patience to sort out differences to take the middle path, ensuring the greater good for all.
Reena Singh has more than 40 years’ experience in senior editorial positions in The Times of India (TOI) and Genpact. She was Deputy Editor with TOI’s spiritual newspaper, The Speaking Tree, where she spent more than nine years. After retiring as a journalist, she decided to try her hand at editing books and now works as an executive editor of a well-known Delhi-based publishing house.
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