Tuesday 5 January 2010

An Idiot - to Be or Not to Be

First it was this dyslexic kid making us realise that every child is special while we all initially struggled to see him anywhere closer to his peers. Now it’s an idiot, who takes on our education system and brings this valuable thought in all of us that - it doesn’t take an idiot to become successful with mere marks and rote memorisation, all it takes is an effort to realise ones own desires and methods to succeed and to understand the fundamentals. Particular Bollywood movies like Taare Zameen Par and 3 Idiots have been made exceptionally well and the messages they carry have been passed on beautifully. I loved watching 3 Idiots and would recommend it to everyone.

A feel-good movie like 3 Idiots with a sensible subject well crafted is always very refreshing. Not going too much into reviewing the movie, I am inclined to talk a bit though about Indian education system. Our education system has been structured to favour only those who end up sacrificing the joy of learning to high scores/grades - the 'Rajus' and the 'Farhans' mostly. I do not have an engineering background to relate to every scene in the movie, but, I am reminded of my college days and the 'Ranchos' of our class, to whom the system was a challenge. In the film, Rancho tops the class, however, the Ranchos I know of, or possibly relate to, did struggle to prove. It is because a) they did not believe in mere memorisation, b) their focus and ways of solving problems were treated as a joke or sometimes completely ignored. This often discouraged them and made them give up. Well, now after having watched the movie, I am thinking to myself or rather can assure that all those Ranchos are doing great in life with their unique ways and methods to success. Hope this movie urges the system to improvise and realise the problems all the Ranchos in our country face.