Vaulting Dreams…

Malati, the eight year old daughter of our maid, stood leaning against my study table as her mother cleaned the room. She seemed quite awed watching me bury my head inside Philip Kotler’s Marketing Management.
“Tai, tu itka abhyaas karun kay doctor honar aahes?” (Will you become a doctor after studying so much?) she asked. I dont blame her, it is a quintessentially Indian concept, that when students study hard, it only to become either a doctor or an engineer. I was too absorbed in the “7 Ps marketing mix” (read confusion mix)to answer her and simply shook my head.
“Mag tu kay honar?” (What will you become, then?)she asked again. Wrong question. Management is perhaps the only faculty where after chasing 38 subjects, making 76 presentations and submitting 100s of projects, you still don’t know what the future will hold for you. You see, ‘ The Jack of all, is Master of Business Administration’

“Me kadachit Corporate Executive hoin” ( I will probably become a corporate executive) I answered Malati, very well aware of the fact that she would not have a clue of what it means. Nor do I, to be honest.
“Mala saang tula kay vhayche aahe mothi jhalyawar ?” (Tell me what do u want to become when u grow up?) I posed immediately to stop her from hurling the next question at me.
“Me tar doctorach honar” ( I will become a doctor) came Malati’s prompt reply.
I was astonished by the conviction in her words, the poise in her vaulting dreams…
Little did she know about the cash pumping into coaching classes and admission procedures that it takes to enter a decent medical school or about the petty loans her mother takes for her uninterrupted schooling.

Malati is not the only one. There are myriad such children in our country, talented and hardworking, who aspire of becoming Doctors, Engineers and Executives in multinationals ( anything less than that is not considered to be of any significance in the realm of degrees…) There are still many who pierce into the battle field to fight for those limited seats in the esteemed colleges. Most of them remain but Pawns with King-sized dreams...

Success stories of young minds from humble backgrounds making it big look good only in books but the reality is far more austere.
Today more than talent and handwork, it is money that you need buy the weighty degrees from the market of education.

it is easy for people like you and me, sitting in our air conditioned rooms, to rant about propagating higher education in 21st century India. Little do we understand the pain of those who study from the old, reused dog-eared books sitting under the lamp posts…

"Kalaji nako karu Aai, me doctor jhaale ki tula nakki bare karin” (don’t worry mom, I’ll treat you once I become a doctor) i heard Malati telling her mother, a patient of arthritis, who graons everytime she bends down.
I wonder if her dreams will ever come true… I pray they should…

My toast is to the silent hoard,
Spread over the world’s expanse
To the unknown many who could have soared –
But never had a chance!