CHARACTER CERTIFICATE

  

      

 As I stand here today only two-three days away from the declaration of my first board exam’s results, without putting on pseudo-courage, I say that like most other students my heart-beat has, in fact, accelerated. I am of the opinion that marks doesn’t count all that much .. at least it definitely does not serve as the yardstick to measure how good a person is!

 I am shocked every time a teacher takes a look at the report card and comments .. “ Oh! This person is an excellent student! “ How sad, people don’t care how many times that person has peeped into another person’s answer sheet! 1% of dishonesty in anything means that its not 100% honest .. be it academics, be it relationships- this seems to ring true everywhere. Has our morale, our value system drooped down so much ?Even the character certificate is based on the mark sheet!

More than anything else what’s worrying me and all my fellow students is peer pressure! What will happen if we don’t get this poarticular percentage? What will people say? It seems as if the mark sheet has really become the “ be all and end all” of our lives…before my boards a tutor told us that if we don’t do well for ICSE our confidence will drop to such a level that it will not be possible for us to regain that confidence ever! When my +2 began, Sister came and told us, “ Girls, even if you have not worked hard during class ten, if you work hard now you will really do well.” .. now that leaves me perplexed! … Like …what ??

Everybody is like – do keep me posted on your results .. and silently I say, I hope to be able to.

The last day before the summer vacation, at school during recess two of my friends and I went to have ice-cream, on our way back to the classroom the unavoidable topic of THE RESULTS came and one of us said super casually , “ Yaar result jo bhi ho, hum suicide nehi karenge”  ( Buddy, whatever be the result, we won’t commit suicide)

The next class was library and somehow after finding myself a quite corner I found myself reflecting on what my friend said. How true, I thought, things have taken such a shape, committing suicide for bad results and other trivial issues on the drop of the hat have become so obvious these days! What about strength of character? Why do I see it being crushed under social/ family/ peer pressure ? Why do people only look at the mark sheet to declare how a person is? Why can’t we think differently? Don’t know why people have this abstruse psychology which makes them look down upon humanities students and look at science students with not just approval but immense admiration! … Two-three days away from my result declaration questions of apparently odd shapes and sizes haunt me … yes I’m tensed, a bit stressed but more than that I’m confused! After all, even my character certificate is going to be a reflection of my mark sheet! Isn’t that the way the “system” works these days?

Anurupa,

May15,2012